Painting the Canvas Red and Blue
by SteamPoweredHeart
Summary: REMAKE OF SHADES OF RED: Following Red's journey; We learn of Red's pressure, his flaws and his perfections and how he deals with certain situations... Most importantly, his relationship with Blue. EVENTUAL RED/BLUE. GAME BASED, NOT ANIME OR MANGA.
1. Painting in Red

This is FleshPorygon, now known as SteamPoweredHeart. This is Shades of Red but revamped, restarted and following Pokémon Yellow.

He will have the exact team as he does on HG/SS/Black1/White2 and I will be playing the game so most dialogue will be from the game too. Enjoy and I do not own anything but the story!

* * *

_Words_ in Italic will be 'The Voice', which you will learn about later.

_Words in Italic and in '...' _are Red's thoughts from now on.

Words in normal font are obviously speech text if in "..." and normal text.

All Pokémon moves and Pokémon specifically will be capitalized at the first letter, as will locations.

* * *

Red's fingers lazily mashed against the gamepad, saving his game on the SNES, before grasping his red and white cap and pulling the white collar up to guard his neck like a shield almost.

Slipping on his red jacket and black gloves that matched his ebony hair and shimmering ruby eyes, the boy stepped towards the stairs and plodded with a smile on his face downstairs to greet his mother. His looks were, from even a first glance, passed on from his single parent mom, who had long ebony locks of her own with ember-coloured eyes and faint pink lips. Her figure was just enough to call her attractive in a physical way and the vibe she gave off was soothing, and motherly. The way she hugged her son made his smile wider.

He truly loved her but today was the day he would leave her.

She had tears in her eyes as she pulled back from the embrace.

"All boys have to leave home someday... the Professor is waiting for you so eat up quickly."

Red nodded, hugging his mother after he had eaten the fry-up breakfast then leaving to face the challenges that fate threw at him.

* * *

Strolling around, Red decided to enjoy the summer weather instead of going straight to the Professor; he also knew the Professor would not even be there because of his irritating time issues, that man seriously needed a watch or something.

His foot brushed against the grass and a daring grin met the world when Red took a brave step into the emerald harmless spikes of nature, then another, and another...

"Don't go in the tall grass!" a voice from far behind bellowed, it sounded breathless and shaky.

Red turned round and saw the Professor quickly scramble into the grass, catching his breath before he resumed his rant at the confused boy.

"That was close! Wild Pokémon live in the tall grass, Red! Now, let's get out of here..."

Just as the Professor tried to drag the boy away, a small yellow rat Pokémon appeared, blocking their path. It had a chubby figure and big black eyes like onyxes with yellow fur and red cheeks. Oak acted quickly, rummaging in his lab coat pocket and pulling out a pokéball, which was a device (Red researched this for years before his adventure) that captured the Pokémon. It caught it straight away.

"Phew..." replied the Professor, wiping sweat off his brow before turning to Red. "A Pokémon can appear anytime in the grass, you need your own Pokémon for safety Red; you should know this!"

Red was about to open his mouth to retaliate until the elder dragged him, proclaiming an idea, towards his lab. Once he was finally let go, Red grinned at his childhood friend, Blue.

Blue just glared at him before snapping at his grandfather, the professor.

"Gramps! I'm fed up with waiting." The boy demanded, arms crossed across his chest. The Professor stopped, staring at his grandson confused.

"Blue? Why are you here already? I said for you to come by later." Blue just frowned even more. "Ah whatever! Just wait there."

Rubbing the back of his neck for a moment, turning to Red, Samuel Oak nodded towards the single pokéball on the table. "Look Red, see that ball on the table? It holds a Pokémon inside... you can have it, go on, take it!" the professor stared eagerly at the boy, who just shrugged smiling before going over. Red hesitated to take the pokéball, as his eyes glanced towards his former friend Blue, who was yelling at the professor.

'_Sounds rough...'_

His hand extended outwards to take the ball but seconds later, he found himself on his rear end staring up at the paled brunette spikes that adorned his friend's scalp. He slowly met his eyes.

"Uh, Blue? That's my Pokémon, no offense..."

"No way!" Blue snapped selfishly, a look of envy in his brown eyes (speckled with ocean blue) as he clutched the pokéball that rightfully belonged to Red. "I want this Pokémon!"

The elderly man watched his grandson steal a Pokémon away from his new helper, and exclaimed in surprise.

"Blue! What are you doing?" Blue just glared.

"I want this one, Gramps!"

Samuel looked nervously at Red and then at Blue; it was either his prized pupil and grandson, Blue or the young confident boy with a chance, Red.

"But I... Oh, all right then. That Pokémon is yours. I was going to give you one anyway."

Red's jaw dropped. It was as if Blue was almost manipulating him!

Professor Oak then beckoned Red, who dusted himself off and rushed over to the man; "Red, this is the Pokémon I caught earlier. You can have it, though careful, it's still untamed."

Red glanced at the pokéball and latched it onto his belt before heading towards the exit.

"See you two la-"

"Wait, Red!"

Red looked up, and noted that Blue was right close to his face. He flushed a scarlet colour.

"Let's check out our Pokémon, come on, I'll take you on!"

Red gulped, and waited for Blue to step back before they both released their Pokémon. Red only following Blue's actions.

Blue smirked as he ordered his Eevee to tackle, but his smirk dropped when Red's Pikachu sidestepped to dodge and laughed in the face of the normal-type.

"Uh... uh... Pikachu, use... growl?"

The noise hurt the Eevee's ears and caused it to shriek in pain, before recklessly tackling the Pikachu on order, pinning the electric mouse to the ground.

"Use thundershock!"

Red's confidence grew as he saw his Pikachu's thunderbolt hit perfectly and even paralyze the fox-cat Pokémon.

"Tackle, Eevee!" – "Pikachu, use your thunderbolt again!"

The tackle stuck its landing, but Pikachu's electricity hit in a split second after – critically damaging the young Eevee. It wobbled a little bit, swaying before passing out.

Blue seethed in jealousy and anger, mumbling something under his breath.

"Unbelievable... Okay! I'll make my Pokémon stronger! I'll smell ya' later."

Red watched Blue leave, before attempting to place his Pikachu back in its pokéball. After attempting many times, each time failing, he gave up whilst glaring at the Pikachu in frustration.

"Well, look at that!" Oak's voice broke the silence that filled the lab like air. "It's odd, but it appears your Pikachu dislikes pokéballs. Maybe you should just keep it out with you, which should make it happy!"

With that, Red thanked and left the Professor to pursue his dream. No matter how small or big it may be.

* * *

Red saw Blue walking up Route 1, his feet dragging a little.

"Hey, Blue!" Red yelled to his former friend, a big grin on his face.

Blue stopped, shooting daggers with his amber eyes.

"What? What do you want, now?"

Red managed to control the impulsive urge to jump in surprise, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"L-Look... I was hoping we were still friends, I mean."

"Mean what?"

"You seem to have been distant for a while... I just hope this whole rivalry or Pokémon journey thing doesn't come between us and we can work things out."

Blue scoffed, turning his back on Red.

"We can never work things out, don't you get that?"

Red looked up from the emerald blades slashing at his trouser legs dealing no damage, and up at Blue.

"Our friendship?" - Blue glanced over his shoulders, anger and sorrow flaring in his eyes.

"It's over."

Red stared after Blue, soaking in the words.

"_What...?"_

* * *

Red trailed behind his Pikachu, hissing at the faint burns the sparks from Thundershock gave him while Pikachu trotted ahead completely refreshed after his mother healed him to full health.

"You're a lot of trouble, you know that?"

The Pikachu just chimed in laughter. Red sighed, but laughed too. The electric mouse ran ahead into Viridian City and Red just noticed how reckless and stubborn his new partner actually was; a lot like Blue.

Red mentally slapped himself; He should be concentrating on his life-long dream! His life aspiration!

"_Our life-long dream..."_

He shrugged it off again, and saw a few wild Rattatas in the distance, all eating berries they had stolen most likely, as upon inspection; they had the talon marks of a Pidgey or Spearow.

Well, his Pokémon did need training...

"Pikachu, go!"

While he trained his Pokémon to the point of collapsing in exhaustion, he picked up the squirming electric-type and made his way into Viridian City in hopes of clearing his head at the nearest Pokémon Center. After all, it was almost dinnertime.

When the two companions settled down for lunch after a quick nap in the Center, Red was slowly gaining the trust of his new Pokémon, which was allowing him to feed it by hand despite it been able to feed itself. It was a rash little fellow, but Red loved its company all the same, after all, it reminded him of Blue.

"Hey Pikachu, now we've finished lunch, we could check out the Pokémart for some items since we are going to explore the forest after all?"

The Pikachu continued munching his final scrap of food, and made a sort of scoff sound before jumping off the low-levelled chair and started strutting towards the exit on its own accord.

Red laughed faintly, feeling a little shown up, and returned the borrowed bowls to Nurse Joy before following his partner to the door in which they felt a high breeze cool their bodies down.

"It's beautiful..." whispered Red, staring out towards the sky, lost in thought until he was shocked back into reality and pushed (much struggling on Pikachu's part) him towards a metallic building with a blue roof.

"O-oh, yeah! – the mart...!"

The Pikachu sighed but grinned slightly, or that is what Red could make out from its facial expression. Red just grinned back in hopes of making a connection; the pushing halted and the tension between the two eased up.

When the two entered the Pokémart, the cashier looked up from his daydream and beckoned them over.

"You, boy!"

Red pointed at himself, and the middle-aged man nodded eagerly. The dark-haired boy found himself stepping closer to the counter.

"Hey, you came from Pallet Town right?"

Red barely got a word in edge-wise before been interrupted from his sentence.

"You know the Professor right? Well, his order came in and my delivery boy isn't on duty today so do ya' mind giving it to him?" he stated rudely, pushing the packet into the hands of Red.

"Uh... um... Well..."

"Thanks, and say hi to Prof. Oak for me, will ya'?"

Red just sighed and nodded, forcing the large box into his bag leaving little room – he would just have to come back later for potions and other items when he had more room.

* * *

It was late when Red eventually arrived back at the lab; it looked like he would be spending a second night at home.

When he walked up to the elder, he felt exhausted, and almost fell asleep throughout his explanation of his parcel. It was longer than Red would have liked it to be.

Until Blue barged into the lab, grumpy as ever.

"_He never used to be like this."_

Red frowned, causing Blue to stare at him strangely and cough in order to hide the eye contact they shared seconds before he spoke.

"Gramps!" causing the Professor to jump slightly, and turn his attention away from the custom pokéballs. "I almost forgot, so what is it that you called me for?"

The professor stood puzzled momentarily.

"Oh, right! I have a request for you two."

Red felt a glare, like millions of tiny needles, stabbing into his skin.

All Red heard from the next few minutes was something about an encyclopaedia of Pokémon named a Pokénex or something, Pokédex...? That's what it was, he thought to himself when examining the rectangular, thin, book-shaped gadget.

"You need these too!"

"_Is he seriously still talking?"_

Red groaned a little under his breath and took the pokéballs gratefully from the old man's clutches before looking up to hear Blue speaking.

"All right Gramps leave it all to me..."

"_All to... him? He asked me too!"_

He turned to face Blue, opening his mouth but was quickly silenced before he even began his sentence.

"Red, I hate to say it."

"_Yeah, right. What's with the smug grin then?"_

"But you won't be necessary for this."

Red clenched his fist. Blue was been unreasonably arrogant!

"I know! I'll borrow a town map from sis, and hey, I'll tell her not to lend you one. You have your own family to provide for you after all."

Blue walked off, more like storming off, but nonetheless he made Red furious. How could he just say that?

"_He doesn't have parents, moron... But that's no reason to be so... so..."_

Red's fist unclenched, loosening its grip on anger and faded back into reality.  
He sighed, shaking his head and tilted his hat at the Professor, before leaving to return to Viridian City – maybe this time; he'll finally get through to the forest!

He stopped quickly to visit Daisy, Blue's sister, and in return for the kind visit and listening to her short rant about her grandfather's laziness, she handed him her town map; "_Score."_ thought Red who headed out towards Viridian City once again.

Red and his Pokémon went onto Route 24, to train themselves for Viridian City, and even caught themselves a new team member; A Mankey whom separated itself from the group at best. Red had tried reaching out to the fighting type but it just lashed out, causing the young boy to be covered in scratches and bruises. At least, it obeyed his commands... well, most of them.

* * *

After an hour or so of non-stop training, he was left exploring the rest of Route 24 with his Pikachu at full health and his Mankey at half health. The Mankey had been scratching at his face the entire time and Red was pulsating with agony as he attempted to read his map – he wasn't exactly sure how to read them.

Stumbling over the tiled pavement that looked like racing orange-yellow cars to Red at the fast-paced speed he was walking at, he felt dizzy and confused. He looked again at the map, getting more frustrated every second.

"_I don't do directions!"_

Red vexed to himself, mainly in his head, before realizing he was falling backwards onto the pavement with a thud.

"Ow... watch it, loser!"

Dark brown eyes met hazel brown eyes.

The hazel ones weren't happy, to say the least.

Red scrambled to his feet, and attempted to apologize, but as usual, was interrupted and deprived his right to speak.

"Red... you heading towards the Pokémon League? Forget it. You don't have any badges, right? Well, you need them to get through."

Red just shrugged, he already knew that anyway.

"So... have your Pokémon got any stronger?"

Without warning, Red was thrown into a battle. A bird Pokémon known as Pidgey was set free by a red beam of light then it immediately began to glide through the air around them. Red panicked and sent forward Pikachu to deal with the flying bird.

"Quick Attack, P-Pikachu!"

Jolting upwards at top speed, the attack was a quick as its name implied; the bird was tossed to the ground then pinned.

The bird type reacted by tossing sand into the poor electric mouse's face, so it'd let go. The yellow furry critter shook away the dirt best it could before charging up electricity on command, sparks flying on to the Pidgey's feet and lower body, startling it.

"Pidgey!" was the only thing heard in the empty valley.

The bird landed, in a stumble, as paralyzing chains of electricity bound its wings and body before reacting again with another Quick Attack on Pikachu's end.

The Pidgey got up but after trotting around aimlessly, it fell unconscious and was returned to its resting place in its pokéball.

Red picked up Pikachu and spun it round in victory, returning the electric mouse to his shoulder just as quickly before grinning at Blue, as if to challenge him even further. Blue responded quickly, sending out his Charmander to face off with the newly trained Mankey.

The Mankey just sat down on the pavement, scratching at the ground barely.

"Is that your new team member?" scoffed Blue. "It's pathetic. It's just weak."

The Mankey's eyes narrowed in anger and stood up, stomping it's large feet on the ground to emphasise toughness. It ran in at the fire lizard, and kicked it backwards at the knees causing it to stumble and recklessly scratch at the Mankey.

The fighting-type hissed, clutching its right cheek before scratching its lower stomach as a comeback.

"Mankey, Mankey stop – I didn't tell you to do that!"

The Pokémon ignored Red, and slashed and scarred the Charmander to unconsciousness. Blue growled and returned his Pokémon as Red clutched the Mankey in an attempt to calm it down.

The Mankey was panting heavily, its health low and anger subsiding slowly but surely. Red sighed with relief and returned it to its pokéball before looking up from his crouched position at Blue.

Blue just looked away, placing his hands inside his purple trousers.

"..."

"Blue...?"

"I heard the Pokémon League is crawling with tough trainers. I need to figure a way past them, and so I think you should quit dawdling if you are ever to surpass me."

With that, Blue left once again, leaving only a confused Red who felt somewhat betrayed.

"_Did I... upset him, maybe?"_

* * *

Red was talking to the professor over the PC video call, explaining that his Mankey was getting out of hand.

"Maybe you could send him over to me? I'll look after him."

"Would you do that, Professor?"

The professor laughed, nodding eagerly.

"Of course, you're doing me a big favour after all."

"Gee, thanks... I'll send it over right away."

Red turned off the video call, after saying good-bye and placed the pokéball into a machine attached to the PC who was made by a person apparently living in Cerulean City; the name on the machine's copied label was scribbled out and faded so it was hard to decipher who made the BOX apparatus.

Red typed a quick command into the computer, and the Pokéball was sent up a shoot and left for Professor Oak to deal with.

"Bye buddy..."

Red healed up his Pikachu before heading towards Viridian Forest, ignoring the gym, which an old man told him was empty.

Red stumbled, his bag weighing him down as he carried a large TV given to him free by an elderly man. The boy didn't understand the purpose of this gift, but it was against his good nature to turn it down.

"_Maybe it'll be nice to watch when I'm camping?"_

* * *

Red sighed unknowingly, and forced himself to press onwards through the gate entrance to Viridian, he was stocked up and ready to go.

When Red entered Viridian Forest, he was hoping to find rare Pokémon amongst the trees and in the long blades of grass.

_**Bugs...**_

Red only found bugs, bugs and more bugs!

He sighed, slumping against a tree as his Pokémon explored the nearby grassy areas.

Pikachu was making it a breeze for Red to get through the forest. The sparks produced enough light to get around the forest late in the evening and afternoon without been in any real danger and it was the best way to set fire to barks of dry wood to provide a fire for the camping for the duo.

After clearing the area of the forest, just two sleeping trainers from the exit gate, the group called it a night, and the electric mouse Pokémon slept against Red as Red twitched and mumbled throughout his nightmare-filled dreams.

_Them taunting dreams._

_Blue..._

_Blue...!_

_I... Blue, I...!_

Snapping awake from the dream, Red looked round paranoid slightly. It was light and buzzing with activity of battles and the noise of wild Pokémon.

'_It's morning...? I guess, we should go then...'_

Red woke his Pokémon gently, and fed it a few berries as he snacked on a candy bar shipped all the way from the Johto region.

"Hey... I wonder, do you think we could ever go to Johto?" the boy asked his Pokémon. They just looked at one another and his Pikachu shrugged, jumping upwards onto Red's shoulder then his head, sitting itself comfortably on his hat.

Red exited Viridian Forest, counting his money he won from battles in the bug-infested hellhole to find himself in a small grassy route with an inaccessible cave due to a large, thick tree in his way. Red shrugged it off, and headed into the rural, grey town of Pewter City to heal up his team, which were tired from the journey.

"We hope to see you again!"

Red smiled at the nurse behind the counter, put off by the fact she looked almost identical to the one in Viridian.

"Creepy..."

The Pikachu perched on his head let off a tone of what would be laughter in response. They made their way outside and looked round.

"Where now then, Pikachu?"

Red's attention was caught by a big, fancy-looking building with a pillared entrance. It had a sign outside stating it was 'Pewter Museum of Science'.

"Hey, that looks cool... let's go in there!"

After spending half an hour staring at meteorites and a strange stone called the Moon Stone and paying a ridiculous fee of 50 Poke just to look at rocks, Red sighed.

"Maybe we should just leav-?"

He saw a blur of brown-orange hair leave a large building, and go onto another route.

"_Was that...?"_

Red ran after the figure, but was rudely stopped by another child.

"You're a trainer, right?"

Red nodded, irritation showing on his face despite the kid's ignorance.

"Brock's looking for new challengers; he's the City gym leader! Here, follow me!"

The young boy tugged on the trainer's wrist and started guiding him towards the building Red saw previously.

"If you have the right stuff, try take on Brock!" the boy said, as if to challenge Red.

Red took that challenge, and called out to the boy.

"I will take on Brock, and I'll bring him down!"

With that, Red entered the gym and took down the gym trainers in his way with ease. He was going to win that Boulder Badge.

* * *

Red stepped towards Brock, the gym leader of Pewter City and rock-type user.

"So, you're here, I'm Brock. I'm Pewter's gym leader."

"I'm Red... Trainer from Pallet Town."

"I see, well my rock-hard willpower is evident even in my Pokémon. My Pokémon are all rock-hard, and have true-grit determination. That's right – my Pokémon are all the rock type!"

"Yeah, well. I challenge you to a battle!"

Brock laughed, it was almost as if he found the challenge funny.

"Fuhaha! You're going to challenge me knowing that you'll lose? That's the trainer's honour that compels you to challenge me."

Red just raised an eyebrow, somewhat confused and nodded, only to agree with Brock so this conversation would be over much quicker.

"Fine, then! Show me your best!"

The tanned, brunette man sent out a bulky rock-type, a Geodude, to face off against the rash and ill-tempered Pikachu.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack!"

The electric Pokémon disappeared for a split second and reappeared, slamming hard into the slow rock-type and span it round like a morning star weapon before letting go. A cloud of dust appeared on impact when the Pokémon hit the wall and as it faded out; it was easy to tell that the Geodude was in defeat.

Brock clapped, and returned the Pokémon to its pokéball.

"Well done... but let's see how you face off against my Onix!"

The gym leader sent out the long, stone snake into battle.

"Now, Onix, use bind!"

Onix was surprisingly fast, and sped towards the small Pikachu before binding it with its tail tightly, suffocating the poor critter.

"Pikachu, break free! Use Thunder wave then Slam it!"

Pikachu struggled but summoned enough electricity in its cheek pouches to paralyze the Onix and slipped through the cracks of the stone snake before slamming head first into it, repeatedly around the body of the Pokémon until it became too tired to fight back, defeating it instantly.

Brock stared in wonder, shocked at how easily he was defeated.

"...I... I took you for granted, and so I lost."

Red appeared to be smirking for once.

"As a proof of your victory, I confer on you this... the official Pokémon League Boulder Badge."

Red turned round to leave before a big hand pulled him back by the shoulder.

"Wait! Take this with you!"

Brock pushed a TM capsule, containing Rock Tomb, into his arms and grinned giving him a thumbs up.

"You should head towards Mt. Moon, and be careful – the Police have reasons to believe criminals are hanging out there but we can't take care of them in a cave like that..."

Red nodded, and ran off to heal his team before heading to the next route.

On the way to the route, a man in glasses and a dirty lab coat waved at Red.

Red was confused, and went towards him.

"Do I kno-" – "Oh, Red! I'm glad I caught up to you. I'm Professor Oak's aide and I've been asked by your mother to deliver these to you" The aide passed Red a parcel with a note attached before leaving Red with a friendly good-bye.

Red looked at the letter, reading it out loud to himself.

'_**Dear Red,**_

_**Here is a pair of running shoes for my beloved challenger. Remember, I'll always cheer for you! Don't ever give up!**_

_**From Mom.'**_

Red smiled happily to himself before leaning against a mountain edge, replacing the scatty old shoes with running sneakers. Red then ran onto Route 3 and began his journey towards the next city, Cerulean City with his new friends and his new brick red sneakers. He ran towards the trainers, to bring them down and bring himself to victory.

* * *

**NOTE: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS HERE, THESE ALL BELONG TO NINTENDO AND THE CREATOR OF POKÉMON. THEY ARE ALSO NOT TO BE MIXED UP WITH GREEN AND RED FROM POKÉMON ADVENTURES AND NOT TO BE MISTAKEN FOR ASH OR GARY. THANK YOU.**


	2. Painting in Red-Orange

Hi, hi! I hope you enjoy this chapter and the previous one!

* * *

Note: In the previous chapter (Painting in Red), Red obtained Running Shoes which weren't available in the games until Pokémon Emerald/Ruby/Sapphire/Leaf Green/Fire Red, onwards but I liked the whole idea of his mother sending him a letter because I wanted to show Red's relationship with his mother on a side note so I'm keeping that there. Enjoy the rest of the series!

* * *

Red clapped his hands against each other, with a big smile on his face. He stared out at the trainers he tossed onto a large pile, metaphorically.

A young girl returned her Pokémon with a huff and passed over a wad of cash.

"Thanks miss!"

Red placed the green paper into his wallet, which was almost fit to burst causing an eruption of laughter.

"Can you believe how much we've got?" – His Pikachu responded with a chorus of sound, which matched his tone of laughter. Red took that as a good sign.

The dark-haired boy made his way to Pokécenter positioned outside the mountainous caves, healed himself up and stared up at a middle-aged balding man.

"Hey, laddie... I just got a deal of a lifetime for you... I'll let you have a secret Pokémon – Magikarp – for just 500 quid. We have a deal?"

Red raised an eyebrow. He had never heard of a Magikarp but this old man was sort of freaking him out.

"No... I'm um, good, thanks."

"No? You say no. I'm only doing this as a favour to you!" he exclaimed and sighed, shaking his head.

Red shrugged, and started leaving only to enter Mt. Moon.

Exploring Mt. Moon was an experience for Red.

"Wow, this is so cool!" beamed Red, as he directed his Pikachu around and challenging the stray trainers to win money.

Red checked his Pokédex to look over his Pikachu's stats.

"Nearly level 25... That's good!"

Red picked up the electric mouse with pride, and inspected the lower floors of Mt. Moon, sliding carefully down the ladders.

"Wonder where this goes...?"

* * *

"Hey, who the hell are you?"

A man, with dark hair cloaked in black trousers, a black hat, and a black shirt tucked into a belt with a giant red 'R' on the front of it stormed up cracking his leather whip to the young trainer who panicked, mainly out of shock, as he grabbed his hat and scrambled to his feet.

"W-Who are you?" Red questioned more confused, to why a grown-man would dress so ridiculously, than scared.

"We, Team Rocket, are Pokémon gangsters! We strike fear with our strength, so fight me kid then gimme all your belongings!"

"Pikachu, go! Use thundershock!" was the first order, but as the Pikachu attempted to shock the small hedgehog ground type, the Sandshrew shrugged it off.

"_Damn, I forgot about ground's immunity..."_

Red thought carefully, and grinned at the Pikachu, snapping his finger towards it and formulated a plan without words.

The Pikachu ran towards the Sandshrew, then in a circle that created a cloud of dirt before charging at the small ground type with vicious speed, knocking it out cold after darting at it from all directions.

Pikachu then body slammed, tail first, into a Rattata that the grunt released knocking it out immediately without any effort.

"Well done, Pikachu!"

A Zubat was the final Pokémon, and Red grinned knowingly raising one hand slowly pointing to the cave's roof.

"Thundershock, full power!"

Bringing down the pointing finger fast, pointing at the Zubat and the so-called gangster, Pikachu electrocuted the both of them knocking out the trainer and Zubat.

"Well, that was easy..."

Red took a small amount of money from the out cold Team Rocket grunt and went back up to the main floor of the cave.

"I need to find a way out and to find out what is going on..."

Red was concerned about the grunts; he'd spotted three so far and even heard from other trainers about their activity within the cave. Red decided he'd get out of the cave quickly, very quick while managing to explore every crook and cranny.

He came across lots of rare objects, such as HP Up's and Star Pieces – even a few new TMs, which would fill his wallet a little for when he went against the Gym Leader of Cerulean City.

* * *

Red continuously swept aside the trainers, putting them back into the position of loser, as his talent grew and grew like the expanding space.

"_Blue... how are you doing? I wonder about you sometimes."_

Red tackled down another grunt, blocking the way to the near exit but before he could leave, he needed answers.

"What are you doing, what on Earth is Team Rocket?"

The grunt laughed, it was blood curdling with insanity, and made Red shiver a little in fear.

"We, Team Rocket, are a criminal organisation that takes useless trainer's Pokémon to put them to better use, so we can further our boss' plan."

"Your boss?"

"Indeed, little boy – but you don't need to worry about him!"

Before Red could get any more answers, the grunt escaped, rushing past the trainer with the speed of the cowardly. No shocker there, he thought. He next ran into one final trainer, demanding a battle after he misunderstood that Red wasn't trying to take any of the fossils. The good thing out of the battle though was hitting level 26 with Pikachu and getting a new move, Thunderbolt.

"Humph, fine... but just choose one fossil!"

Red didn't even want one, but he wasn't going to cross this nutter, especially with a bag that heavy – it'd knock him out instantly!

He traced the patterns on them both, from his observation skills, he realized the one known as a Dome Fossil resembled a shell from something that seemed like a hardy bug whilst the Helix Fossil resembled a snail's shell.

"No being greedy!"

Red shrugged, and placed the Dome Fossil in his bag, not really bothered by it as he watched the nerd snatch the Helix Fossil.

"Then, this fossil is mine!"

Red shook hands with the super nerd who kept glancing at the bulging fossil in his bag in hopes of stealing it; Red just ran towards the exit but stopped by two figures.

* * *

"Stop right there!"

A man with pale blue hair and a woman with dark red hair stopped him, their Pokémon blocking his exit on all sides.

"That fossil belongs to Team Rocket!" – "Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

Pikachu, though exhausted, stumbled forward and charged up electricity in its pouches before the battle as an Ekans and a Koffing was sent out.

Ekans leered at the electric mouse while Koffing coated the battlefield in black smog.

"Pikachu, light up the cave and use Thundershock!"

Pikachu followed orders and shocked the Ekans into fainting, before quick attacking to get close to the poisonous orbs and slamming the Koffing into a wall.

The two team rocket grunts glared at each other and sent out their Meowth.

Pikachu stumbled forward, charging up again as sparks flew. The electric mouse didn't expect the feline Pokémon to be see fast and was greeted with vicious claws.

"Pikachu, dodge!"

Pikachu took a few scratches, before managing to duck and run away.

"Now, Thunderbolt!"

Letting off a large explosive amount of electricity, hitting the foe's Meowth critically enough to knock it out completely in one hit.

"We did it...!"

Red quickly picked up the tired Pokémon in his arms, and smirked at the Team Rocket members who returned their final Pokémon.

"A brat beat us?" they stared back in horror before scattering away rambling some nonsense Red couldn't make out.

"Let's get out of here, Pikachu..."

Red stumbled out onto Route 4, he started heading out from the grass into Cerulean.

* * *

Wandering into a girl's house in hopes of been the trainer to take care of the rare grass-type, Bulbasaur, he cuddled the Pikachu close to his chest much to the electric mouse's dismay.

"Hey, um, I heard you were taking care of a Bulbasaur, and I wanted to know if maybe I could... help?"

The girl smiled and petted the Bulbasaur to her right.

"Of course! You don't mind washing the little fella with me, do you?"

Red shook his head and helped care for the Bulbasaur to the near ends of the night.

The girl offered Red a bed for the night, and gratefully, the dark-haired trainer took it out of exhaustion and lack of energy after chasing his Pikachu and the Bulbasaur around all day.

* * *

"Oh, and if it's not much trouble... Bulbasaur really likes you and Pikachu so maybe you could take care of him permanently. On your journey, of course?"

Red grinned and nodded before drifting into a deep sleep.

After training and healing his new team, thanking the nurse he rushed out with his two Pokémon – Ivysaur (who evolved after frustratingly lengthy training) at level 25 and his Pikachu, at level 26 – to defeat the Gym Leader, known as Misty. He studied carefully her strategies such as healing, confusing and full-on offensive attacks. He entered, his voice echoing.

"Misty, I challenge you!"

In the distance, a blur of orange-brown hair could be seen swaying slightly as a girly laugh could be heard through the gym, which was also a public swimming bath. The gym trainers also laughed, ridiculing the trainer once again; Red frowned, and stroked his Pikachu stepping forward only to pause staring at the grey-stone statue that stood tall on either side of him like guards preventing entrance.

_Winning Trainers: _

_Blue._

He gulped, Blue was here?

No, he'd have moved on.

What if he hadn't?

'_Focus on your goal, Red!'_

"_Our goal... His goal."_

"_No, my goal now – he has his own dreams now, he's on his own journey, we aren't kids anymore!"_

Red wrestled with his conscious as he allowed his Pikachu to electrocute and rid him of the trouble of ordering the little yellow mouse into battle.

"Hi, you're a new face!" the red-head greeted.

He snapped out of it when Misty clicked her fingers in front of her, frowning.

"So, what is your approach when you catch and train Pokémon?"

"Well..."

Cut off, _again_.

"Well, my policy is an all-out offensive with water-type Pokémon! So are you ready, sweetie?"

Winking, she sent out her Staryu and it span like a Frisbee – hitting the Pikachu straight in the face knocking him back.

"Pikachu?" – The electric mouse shook it off, angry about the little bruise on his face – "You okay? Okay, use thundershock!"

The Pikachu ran towards the Staryu as it span towards the small mouse, and jumped onto it, gripping tightly as it electrocuted the centre of the Staryu. "Mega Kick!" the Pikachu jumped, kicking the centre again into the floor causing a small crater upon the heavy impact with a 'crash'.

Misty returned her Pokémon, kissed the second pokéball and released her Starmie. "Go, Starmie, use Water Pulse!"

It weakened the electric mouse badly, making it stumble and confused. Red ran over and grabbed it before it fell into the water of the pool and sent out his Ivysaur.

"Go, Ivysaur – use sleep powder!"

The bud-flower Pokémon was hit with multiple attacks of flying stars before been able to produce the little particles which carried on the air eventually reached the Starmie, and put it to sleep.

"Now, vine whip!"

Ivysaur slammed its two whips into the purple star Pokémon's pink-red jewel causing it to crack, waking up the Starmie only for it to be greeted with another vine wrapping round its top spike and released it straight into the back wall as Misty dodged.

"Oops... sorry."

Misty scoffed, returning her Pokémon.

"Here, you can have the Cascade Badge to show you beat me – take this too."

Misty handed, nicely, a TM of Water Pulse and Red smiled, thanking her abruptly before heading out before the night ended towards a place known as the Golden Bridge.

* * *

Red walked slowly towards the famous bridge until stopped by a familiar face causing Red's to flush a faint pink all the way from his toes to the tips of his ears.

"Yo, Red!" Blue yelled, blocking Red's way to the bridge as he ran fingers through his brown-orange hair. Red subconsciously fiddled with his own brown-black hair under his hat.

"You're still struggling along back here?"

His cocky, arrogant laugh made Red shiver.

"I'm doing great! I caught a bunch of strong and smart Pokémon."

Red just nodded meekly.

"Here, let me show you."

Blue smirked, his eyes catching contact with Red's as he sends out his Spearow, its feather mane short and aggressive.

"Spearow... Use gust." He clicked his fingers, and the bird Pokémon flapped its wings faster and faster, creating a small tornado of wind sending it towards the electric mouse that jumped from Red's head.

The Pikachu was caught in the tornado, been sliced and cut at.

"Pikachu! Get to the centre of it, and use Thundershock!"

Pikachu struggled, squirmed its way into the centre before electrocuting the tornado, and made it into a tornado of pure electric energy, spinning it anti-clockwise towards the bird knocking it out with a critical hit to its chest.

Blue grinded his teeth, chewing on his cheek but sending out his newly caught Sandshrew, which was instantly knocked out with a heavy Slam attack.

Blue repeated his irritated sounds, and sent out his level fifteen Rattata that snarled at Ivysaur.

Ivysaur used Poison-Powder to poison the purple rat Pokémon as the Rattata tackled, getting close up to the grass-type that way.

"Use vine whip!"

The bud Pokémon wrapped its vines around the small rat and cut of its air supply to the point of passing out before releasing it.

Blue glared as he sent out his starter, the level seventeen Eevee. Red returned his tired partner and sent out his Pikachu to fight off against Blue's starter. Starter versus Starter.

It was an easy win, with a Quick Attack followed by a Thunderbolt but Red refused to celebrate the victory so openly this time.

"_Not against Blue."_

"Blue, I..."

"Take it easy!" he snapped, tears welling in his eyes. "You won already..."

He rubbed his eyes aggressively, turning away as he did before struggling to gain his cocky attitude again.

"Hey... guess what? I'm further ahead of you anyway, I met Bill, this famous pokémaniac showed me these rare Pokémon and added more to my pages so yeah – you should thank him, since he's the inventor of the PC system and we both know you've used it."

Blue pushed past him violently, and stopped turning back and grabbing Red's wrist pulling him forward as Red turned with him, in a faulty almost-synchronized motion.

"Here..."

Their faces so close to one another.

Red's breathing increased.

Blue's breathing slowed.

Red felt his cheeks heat up even though he could see Blue's eyes harden, and stare back cold.

Red's heart pounded against his chest, making him feel wheezy.

Blue just remained calm and cold.

Cold, cold Blue like the waters of Cerulean.

"I feel sorry for you..."

Red's eyes lit up.

"I mean it; you're always plodding behind me..."

Red's heart sunk.

"_Stupid competitive Blue."_

"So here's a little gift, seen as you're obviously missing me."

Pushing into his hand, Blue had given him a picture of himself, signed too.

"I don't give a hoot about others or about you but I just thought I'd be nice this one last time."

"_Don't leave."_

"Smell ya' later!"

"_Not again..."_

"_Don't leave me alone, Blue."_

Red stared after him, clutching the photograph in his hands as he watched his rival leave his line of sight.

That was when he knew how he felt about his rival, all the confusing times, all of the angry times, the sad times and the happy times.

The heartbeat, the breathing, the redness that covered his body from head to toe, the dizziness in the presence of Blue.

"_Blue... I love you..."_

* * *

"_Please... love me too...?"_

* * *

Hope you enjoyed this chapter; I'm starting the third one again now!

The voice is back too, yes I'm including it in because I do think Red is a little insane.


	3. Painting in Orange

Third chapter, already!

This time, it is Nugget Bridge and S.S. Anne, yay! The death of Rattata!

Anyway, I own none of the characters, moves, Pokémon, etc.

* * *

Red sighed and picked up his Pikachu, he sent him and his fellow Ivysaur into battle with the trainers of the Nugget Bridge.

After defeating the regretful trainers, who deny their regrets, on the bridge he came across the man at the end who greeted him happily. Red felt anything but.

Red let the man blab continuously as he sprayed his Pikachu with a healing potion, until he held out his hand on the weird-man's behalf to receive a golden rock, known as a nugget.

"_This is going in the trash, and by the trash I mean the PokeMart's storehouse."_

"You just earned a fabulous prize; by the way..."

The mysterious man's friendly smile curled into a devious smirk.

"How would you like to join Team Rocket?"

Red's eyes shot up to make eye contact.

His body slowly reacted, forcing him to stand up straight to look the man dead in the eyes.

"Team Rocket...?"

Red meant for it to come across as something else. To come across as disgust. It came across as question.

"We're a group of professional criminals specializing in Pokémon!"

The man's smirk grew as he pulled off the shirt with dark grace and enigma.

'_Blue is the only enigma.'_

"_Yes, I know that."_

"Want to join?" asked the grunt, his smirk burning into the back of Red's mind.

'_Blue is not a criminal.'_

"_I know that too."_

'_So why think about joining? Wouldn't that just disappoint him more?'_

"_To go undercover?"_

'_To hide.'_

"_Liar!"_

'_You wouldn't join anyway, you're a good kid.'_

The grunt, stripped off the side-buttoned trousers and revealed to be wearing his jet-black outfit with the faded red 'R' from the sunlight it must have received daily while not under that dreadful auburn and teal shirt.

"Come on, join us!"

Red shook his head quickly, pulling his hat over his eyes.

The grunt got frustrated.

"I'm telling you to join!"

The grunt grabbed him by the collar of his sleeveless jacket, causing the back of the jacket and his shirt to cut into his neck a little too hard for Red's liking. Red managed to filter the pain by thinking of anything else, and shook his head again.

The grunt pushed him back a little, as he let go.

"...Okay, you just need some convincing! – How about an offer you can't refuse?"

Red frowned, signalling for his Pikachu to go up front when the grunt reached for his Pokéball.

"Join us or you die!"

The grunt released, in a long red beam, a snake Pokémon common round these parts known as Ekans. It hissed violently, causing his Pikachu's fur to stick up on end, sparks flying from the rodent's cheeks.

"Pikachu, Thundershock!" – "Ekans, use Wrap!"

The Ekans darted forward, and wrapped around the small electric mouse, squeezing tighter and tighter. The Pikachu let out a small amount of volts throughout the Ekans body, causing it to make a laughing noise before squeezing tighter round the weak Pikachu's body.

The Ekans jolted slightly after a few seconds, sparks flying off its own body, and the snake found it suddenly difficult to move. Red grinned; he gained an upper hand in the battle.

"Wriggle out, Pikachu and use Slam!"

Ekans could not move to tighten its grip on the mouse and so it watched in burning hatred as it escaped the Wrap, and launched its body towards the jaw of the Ekans, banging it backwards using Slam and forcing it into the ground. The large impact made it faint, much to the grunt's dismay.

"Damn you, I still have one more Pokémon left!"

The grunt sent out a Zubat, and Red raised an eyebrow, lifted his hand up to the Grunt's line of sight, and walked past him snapping his fingers as the Grunt's eyes caught his own red-brown ones.

The Pikachu summoned electricity from the pouches in its cheeks and fried the Zubat into unconsciousness. The grunt gaped, confused to how he lost so easily.

Red's emotionless face turned to look over his shoulder at the grunt, which made his expression change to that of shock.

He never expected to see a Team Rocket, a criminal no less that had threatened his life, to cradle the Zubat before returning it.

"...with your ability, you'd have made a top leader in Team Rocket."

The grunt glared at Red, his head jerking with tears slowly streaming down his fair-skinned face.

"Think of the opportunity! D-Don't let this chance go to waste...!"

Red stared, in amazement.

"Why?"

The grunt returned the Zubat, wiped his eyes and sat beside the hedge he once waited.

"You know what, never mind... just leave. Team Rocket does not want heroes like you on our side. You'll just betray us."

Red stared intently and went forward towards the other trainers, mumbling an apology to the emotional wreckage, his own age that was many of his newfound enemies.

* * *

After chatting with the young five year old with a Charmander, he received the fire lizard in exchange for a few items and for his company.

"Thanks, kid!"

Grinning, Red decided to go visit this Bill character and to train his new powerhouse at the same time as he could see the trainers in the distance.

"This'll be easy."

After healing his Pokémon up with potions, he challenged wild Pokémon and trainers to a battle in hope that with the help of his Ivysaur, and Pikachu that his newly gained member would become a powerhouse to the team, eventually.

In one fight, Red's Charmander struggled against a trainer's Geodude.

"Come on, Charmander, you can do it – use Ember!"

The Charmander breathed flames against the rocky skin of the Geodude while occasionally growling and scratch at it; most of these attacks been ineffective and only chipping away at the rock-type's health.

It used Scratch again and this time, it caused quite the critical impact, which forced the Geodude from its winning streak which then slammed the Metapod into the air, levitating slightly, the rock-type then smashed the lizard down towards the Earth.

"Charmander!"

Red ran forward, catching the Charmander hurting himself a little in the process.

"C-Charmander, are you okay? I'm sorry, please be okay...!"

The fire lizard started to glow, unbeknownst to the trembling trainer, until he felt that familiar warmth and the body it was holding began to morph.

His Charmander became a Charmeleon!

Red let go off his Charmeleon and grinned, before pointing at the Geodude.

"Attack it, use Ember."

The Charmeleon scoffed and nodded, grasping its tail and inhaling before blowing a larger ember of flames than before – almost like a flamethrower attack just less impact – towards the Geodude. When the smoke moved away, the Geodude was charred, looking a lot like burnt wood or charcoal.

Red checked his Pokédex.

"Wow, you've gotten stronger..." he mumbled as he looked up to see the Geodude in charred bits on the floor.

"You did great, Charmeleon!" he exclaimed, petting the newly evolved Pokémon as he collected his money reward and headed through the hoards of trainers towards the house of Bill in the distance.

* * *

At the end of the cape, decorated with dancing pink flowers and swaying green grass, were a small house with a leaf green roof, and a tear blue door with an iron doorway. Red looked at the door, his smile returning to his face as he knocked on the door – his Pikachu ran onto his head and settled itself there putting on its most welcoming, friendly smile as Red had instructed claiming it was polite.

When nobody answered, Red knocked again and then heard a weird noise coming from inside the house followed by a 'crash' sound. The trainer jumped and attempted to open the door, which he stumbled through as he panicked.

"Mr. Bill? Bill, sir? Are you okay?"

He blinked, and found a small pink Clefairy staring at him, covered in paper.

"A Clefairy... is it Bills?"

Red picked it up from behind, causing it to kick off and squirm.

"H-Hey! Calm down, little guy! I just wanted to know if you knew where Bill was!"

The Clefairy stared at him, and shuffled round in Red's hands.

"I'm not a Pokémon! I'm Bill, the true-blue Pokémaniac!"

"Uh... 'kay... When did Pokémon talk?" Red mumbled to himself, looking rather sceptical.

"Hey! What is with that sceptical look? I'm not joshing ya', pal!"

Red just raised an eyebrow, and jerked his head back as his Pikachu snickered at this-so-called Pokémaniac.

"Okay, look 'ere pal, I screwed up an experiment and so I got combined with a Pokémon!" Bill sighed then looked up, his eyes sparkling with hope.

"Hey, how about you reverse it? Help me out, eh?"

Red shrugged, placing him down.

"Sure, I guess..."

"Okay, just stand by the PC and wait until I'm in the teleporter, okay?"

Red headed towards the computer as instructed, and waited until Bill got to the teleporter.

Bill called out to him, about pressing a Reverse button on the Cell Separation System or something like that, so Red did and in a flashy few seconds, what Red presumed to be the real Bill popped out of the other teleporter pod.

Bill came over to Red as he brushed imaginary dirt of his violet sweater and neatened up his brunette hair.

"Yeehah~! Thanks bud, I owe you one!"

"Well, okay..."

"So, why did ya' come here? Oh, of course, it was to look at my rare Pokémon collection!"

Red just shrugged, and let Bill run him through images of his three Pokémon known as the three 'Eeveelutions' as he liked to call them, but their real names were Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon.

"Well, I should lea-" – "Wait, I got to thank you... Hmm, oh have this!"

Bill fished out a little plastic card in a cardboard wallet-like pouch and passed it to Red, who gratefully accepted the gift, and inspected it.

"It's a ticket to Vermillion City's S.S. Anne, I don't do fancy dos so how about you go instead? Go, go and have a good time!"

Red shrugged, went back to the city and stocked up before heading through Route 6.

* * *

Red headed out towards the route but just as he tried to leave, he noticed a Police officer arguing with another one.

Red sneaked towards them, and towards the house, they were guarding but found nothing of interest in their argument, and went to leave until one of them mentioned a thief from Team Rocket.

"_Team Rocket...!"_

Red waited until the guards were at the heat of their argument before running in to find a destroyed house filled with Pokémon and human footprints and dirt. Inside was a man who looked mortified, and hugging a younger girl – presumably, his daughter – who was crying.

"A-Are you two okay?"

"Yes... but our house has been destroyed and a grunt ran off with my TM, Dig."

"I'll get it back for you, and avenge the destruction of your house!"

"Um, sonny, isn't that a little dangerous?"

"I'm a Pokémon Trainer, and one day, I'll be the Champion! Danger is necessary for the experience!"

Red gave the old hiker a thumbs-up, and ran after the grunt he could see giggling to himself outside through the window.

Red grabbed the grunt from behind, a completely new one this time, and glared at him.

"Pikachu, get ready to zap this loser!"

His Pikachu flared electricity from its cheeks, the grunt glared back.

"Hey, get lost, this isn't your yard!"

"It's not yours either!"

"Huh? Oh, me? Well I'm an innocent bystander..."

Red growled slightly, getting annoyed by the obvious lie.

"What, you don't believe me then? Okay, I'll have to get rid of you the hard way!"

The Machop that was sent out and Red's Pikachu fought relentlessly, clashing feet and fingers, their strength mutual. One swift kick knocked the Machop out and it was switched out for a Drowzee.

Pikachu stumbled, a little dizzy.

"Pika, pal...?"

The Pikachu flopped forward, unconscious.

"Pikachu!"

Red returned his Pikachu, mumbling words of apology and shame before sending out his Ivysaur.

"Go, use Razor Leaf!"

The razor-sharp boomerang leaves sliced at the Drowzee, and flopped beside him. The Drowzee lifted the leaves back into their original position using Confusion and sent them back, slicing up Ivysaur.

"Use vine whip!"

Ivysaur slashed at the Drowzee with its vines, and using it as a distraction, tackled into the Drowzee's stomach knocking it unconscious.

"Stop, fine I give up!"

Red smiled innocently, at the Grunt who was on his knees in defeat.

"Good, now give me back the TM you stole."

"Okay... here, return the TM..."

Just as Red was inspecting it for any damage, and was about to thank the grunt for his co-operation, he had ran off in fear of his boss' rage.

"Huh... better return this."

When Red went to return it, he was given it to keep as a reward, much to his joy.

"To Vermillion City, you lot!"

* * *

Red set off down Route 6, as he tried passing through Saffron only to find out it was closed off.

When coming into the open spaced town of Vermillion, Red took in the surroundings; many buildings by the coast, a Machop and an elderly man working at a plot of land, a gym corned off, a police officer with back-up chasing after a water-type Pokémon and the docks.

Red rummaged his pockets and took out the ticket but along with it; fell out the photograph of Blue.

"...Ass."

Picking it up, he forced it into the side pocket of this bag-pack before heading to the S.S. Anne. Luckily, this will take his mind off things.

Red battled amongst the challengers, the restless and the weary. He chatted, made friends and even found a Great Ball, a newly made pokéball, in the trash tipped off by a chef in the kitchen.

He waved goodbye to another friend he made on the ship, and decided to head to the Captain, where he was told he could obtain his first HM, Cut.

Then, unfortunately for Red, Blue came down the stairs in his usual attire but on the ship, he seemed more elegant, more beautiful.

"_More perfect."_

Once Blue reached the final step, and let go of the banister, and smirked running his fingers through the fine hair making Red want to be his fingers right at that moment. Red flushed pink when Blue caught him staring.

"Bonjour, Red~"

His voice suited the accent, and if Red had to compare him to a true French person, he'd say Blue was better off speaking French than a real Frenchman.

"Imagine seeing you here, were you really invited?" – A small scoff could be heard under Blue's all-too-welcoming tone of voice – "So, how is your Pokédex coming along? Mine's doing great, in fact, let me show you!"

Blue sent out his trusted Spearow, and smirked.

Red sent out his electric mouse friend, and flushed brighter, trying to hide his face with his hair and hat.

"Sand-attack, Spearow!"

The elegant yet ferocious bird gathered and kicked dirt at the Pikachu, which was already charging electricity but caused the small rodent to flail at the temporary blindness.

"Pikachu, just focus, and blink!"

The Pikachu focused, and blinked rapidly before regaining its sight again and firing an impressive Thunderbolt at the flying-type, making it faint instantly.

Blue stared at his Pidgeotto's pokéball as he returned it, frowning.

Eevee skidded across the ground after coming out of its pokéball without command and stared up at the fire-type lizard that glared at the fox Pokémon with intimidating eyes.

"Scare it, use Leer!"

Charmeleon got right in the face of the normal type, and leered the small critter into cowering but with Blue's encouragement fought it off with Sand-attack then Tackle, knocking it to the floor. Charmeleon retaliated by burning the Eevee with Ember and slashing its face angrily with Scratch attack. Eevee cowered, whimpering towards Blue in pain as its face started to bleed faintly. Red didn't notice, he was wrapped up in emotions, and his own insanity he blatantly didn't realize was consuming him in his victory.

"Use Ember!"

Another blast of flames hit the Eevee, knocking it out. Another victory.

Following up was his ground-type, in response, Red sent out his Ivysaur quickly. It was an easy win; Commands shouting across the small corridor as vines lashed and wrapped, and claws scrapped to get away. The Sandshrew went down with just a few Vine Whips and a dose of Poison-Powder.

Blue replaced his Sandshrew with his Rattata; Red followed this act by sending out Pikachu once again.

His Pikachu was just as fast, sneaking in a Quick Attack, putting the Rattata into the floor followed only quickly by the barrage of Thunderbolts and Slam attacks. When the battle was over, Blue looked mortified as his Pokémon was unconscious though Red was too busy praising his Pokémon to notice how mangled and in pain, Blue's Rattata truly was.

Blue cradled his Rattata out of Red's sight, and bit his lip suppressing tears that swelled up in the corner of his eyes.

* * *

"Humph."

This caught Red's attention.

"At least, you're raising your Pokémon properly..."

Red nodded, taking it as a faint compliment.

"You too, Blue, I mean your Pokémon are really str-"

"Smell ya' later!"

Blue shouted, his voice cracked a little, worrying Red.

"_Should I chase after him...? I'm worry"_

'_So you do have feelings for him?'_

"_I guess..."_

'_Well, what's more important? Your future or your feelings?'_

"_Mom always said to follow my hear-"_

'_Heart this, heart that – your future is at stake because of that boy, you need to understand you aren't friends anymore, you're rivals!'_

"_Blue..."_

Red sighed, giving into the peer pressure of the small voice inside his head and slowly jogged up the stairs trying to put on a bright smile that was only dulled by his sinking emotions.

* * *

Red came across a groaning old man, heaving over a bucket.

Approaching him, he heard the old man muttering to himself.

"I feel hideous... Urrp! Bloody seasickness..."

Red went and massaged his back, in hopes of easing his seasickness.

The Captain stopped hurling after a few rubs, wiped his mouth and breathed heavily before standing upright with a faint smile on his face.

"Whew! Thank you, laddie! I'm feeling much better now!"

"Happy to help, Captain."

"Hey, as thanks, how about I give you a spare of my Cut HM?"

"Please! I've been searching for that everywhere!"

"Well, laddie, search no more – here, all yours!"

Red gratefully took it, expressed his thanks and left the S.S. Anne after a quick healing of his team. He waved as the boat left the port and eventually dropped his hand to his sides and smiled faintly.

"Time to take down the third gym..."

Moreover, Red intended to do that.

* * *

Red grumbled, confused by the switch-trap, having done one already and repeatedly having switched the first gate of electricity off but only for it to turn back on.

Checking the bins carefully, Red's eyes narrowed at a small switch hidden by the trash. Hand dug in. Flick the switch. Look up. The second gate turned off, and a grin spread across his face.

Red walked through the gates. He defeated the elderly man, who bowed in defeat after their swift battle. Approached the ex-taskmaster and took out a pokéball.

The blonde sergeant laughed as he looked up, his face filled with humour and disbelief.

"Hey, kid! What do you think you're doing here?"

"To fight you, isn't that what we trainers normally do?"

Lt. Surge frowned.

"Ten-hut! Welcome to Vermilion Gym! Will you look at that, a pint-size challenger! Hahaha! You've got big and brassy nerves to take me on with your puny power!" Red stared, clenching his pokéball tighter.

"A Pokémon battle is war! I'll show you civilian! I'll shock you into surrender!"

Pokéballs flew out. Red beams shot out Pokémon.

Ivysaur versus Voltorb.

Red's Ivysaur spurted out Poison Powder, its purple specks floating the air but missing the target as the Voltorb used Screech to blow them in another direction. Ivysaur shuddered, but with Red's encouragement, and tried again – the Poison Powder hitting the Voltorb this time.

"Use Razor Leaf, Ivysaur!" Red shouted, grinning as they hit dead on and knocked the Voltorb out in one hit.

A Pikachu was sent out to replace Lt. Surge's Voltorb.

"Pikachu, use Shockwave!"

A wave of shocking electricity hit the grass-type Pokémon and caused him to stumble back. Red took out a Super Potion, to heal the low health of his Ivysaur and ordered a Razor Leaf, knocking out the Pikachu as they cut at its body.

"Ivysaur, switch out" – "Raichu, let's show them a real shocking show!"

Red's Pikachu came face to face with a large, orange Raichu, which towered the small yellow mouse.

"Pikachu, use Mega Punch!" – "Raichu, Thunder Wave!"

As Pikachu's fist came in contact, upper cutting the Raichu in the jaw, it emits a mild wave of electricity, paralysing the electric rodent. Pikachu sent out a more powerful electric attack, Thunderbolt, shocking the Raichu into paralysis also.

Both hunched, and staggering at a slower than slow pace, Red and Lt. Surge healed their Pokémon before continuing the battle.

Red sprayed Pikachu with a paralysis heal before mumbling his command.

Lt. Surge bellowed – "Raichu, Double Team!" – At the top of his voice.

Pikachu closed its eyes and waited before snapping its eyes open, and struck the fake illusions of the Raichu with heavy Thunderbolts while using that as a distraction, panicking the electric orange Pokémon and used Mega Kick, knocking the Raichu out.

Pikachu jumped back, and was absorbed back into its pokéball.

Lt. Surge admitted defeated a lot more graciously than Brock did, but still seemed annoyed.

"Now that's a shocker..." His face lightened up, chuckling. "You're the real deal, kid! Fine, then, you can take the Thunderbadge!"

* * *

Pikachu ran ahead into the streets, shocking the ground with Thunderbolt, a new move learnt with Lt. Surge's Raichu.

Red grinned as he picked up the rodent.

"Come on, stop that now..."

A voice yelled in the distance.

"Hey, you! Trainer!"

Red jumped and raised his hands into the air, his Pikachu following suite.

"Officer! I didn't do anything wrong, I swear it!"

The blue-haired woman straightened her uniform, a pokéball in hand that rattled furiously.

"I know you didn't do anything... I just wanted a favour."

"A favour?"

The officer nodded.

"Do you have the Thunder Badge?"

Red nodded in response and showed the glittering gold badge to her as proof; she smiled in approval before clasping the pokéball in Red's hands.

"I caught this Squirtle; it was always getting into mischief and needed a good trainer. Would you take care of it?"

Red grinned; All three starters? How awesome was his luck!

"Of course I will, it'd be a pleasure Officer!"

Officer Jenny and Red left on good words and with Red having a new companion on his team – it'd make his path to victory that bit more fun. Not long after, he bumped into another Aide.

Red grinned as he picked up the rodent.

"Come on, stop that now..."

A voice yelled in the distance.

"Hey, Red, yoo-hoo!"

Another one of the Professor's aides.

Red headed towards him, with a pleasant smile on his face.

"Hey, what does the Professor want now?

The aide jumped a little, and returned the smile faintly.

"Oh hello, Red, how are you doing?"

Red showed him the third badge; "Not bad, got the Thunderbadge so pretty well."

"Well, I thought I'd let you know that on Route 2, another aide has a package for you."

"Oh? Sweet, thanks, I'll go there now!"

The Aide adjusted his glasses and nodded, smiling still.

Red gave him a quick one-armed hug, and ran to the Pokémon Center to heal up his team before heading out to Diglett Cave for a shortcut back to Pewter City, or even better, Route 2.

Scrambling out the cave covered in dirt and dust, Red came across another gate point on Route 2, and inside the Aide that was waiting for him.

"Hey, sir! It's me, Red!"

"Ah, Red, hello... you remember me right?"

Red stared the man up and down, honestly he thought they all looked rather similar – middle aged nerds, not that he was one to criticize – and nodded with a fake, yet reassuring grin.

"I'm glad, well Professor Oak entrusted me HM05 to give to you, it's the move Flash, it lights up even the darkest of caves... At least, I think it does."

"Tell the Professor I said thanks, okay? I need to head to Pewter City to heal up the team!"

Red ran out through the shortcut of Route 2, and restored his friend's health before noticing the museum again. Observing more closely, he saw a tree that could easily be cut down so that he could see in the back room, Red grinned – after all, there was nothing wrong with been nosey, it killed the Meowth, not Red. – And sneaked towards it, cutting the tree and staring in through the door window.

After staring in, attempting to listen, Red was caught and a scientist rushed over with an expression of pure annoyance.

"Oi boy, what do you think you're doing here?"

"S-Sorry, I just thought I'd um... I'm sorry!"

The scientist noted the bag, and the pokéballs.

"Are you... are you a trainer?"

"Yes...?"

The museum researcher grabbed Red's wrist and dragged him in, closing the door and bringing him towards large amber rock that deep inside, embedded, was a skeleton of sorts. A fossil.

"I have a favour to ask you, kid."

"Uh, okay, but you promise not to like ban me from here or any form of punishment..."

"Yeah sure, whatever, I just want you to go and get this Amber examined at a Pokémon lab somewhere – this amber I believe, contains genetic material of a prehistoric Pokémon! Imagine if it could be resurrected! – you can even keep the Pokémon that is becomes if what I say is true!"

Red shrugged and took it, with both hands as it was rather heavy, and placed it in his bag amongst the other bits and bats.

Next stop, Celadon City.

* * *

Red entered Route 9 and his jaw almost dropped at the amount of trainers, until he could reach the dark, dreary Rock Tunnel to Celadon. He sent out all four of his Pokémon; Pikachu, Ivysaur, Charmeleon and Wartortle to clear his path.

Stepping out of the Pokémon Center located in front of Rock Tunnel's entrance, Red stood proud with a new team-member – a female Fearow, he trained as a Spearow on Route 9 – and headed in to fight the wild critters and demanding trainers of the winding dark maze.

Tired, and his Pokémon pumped up to their best, he wandered aimlessly into Lavender Town – a complete ghost town – and stumbled into a Pokémon Center, tired and exhausted so deciding it would be wise to grab some food from the Center's cafeteria and then some rest, he released his Pokémon out of the red-white storage balls and let them run round and stretch while he grabbed them all some bowls of chow.

By the end of the training regimes, the team were entering their level 40s.

* * *

By the time, they finished their food, finished training on the outskirts of Lavender Town and Red had gotten all his Pokémon to sleep, he had taken a shower and stepped out of it dripping wet down his fair-coloured skin.

Padding his way, leaving wet footprints along the en suite bathroom, he paused shortly in front of a mirror noting a difference in the mirror. His normally dark, flat hair was a soft chocolate brown with drooping spikes in the back, and his eyes were brown instead of the burgundy red colour. His body was the same build, and same skin tone but it was perfect and free of scars and bruises. One scar in particular was missing; the one on his right side that slash to the bone of his hip caused by a battle incident with a trainer's Beedrill, which slashed all down his side as he shielded his Pikachu from harm of an upcoming Fury Attack at the beginning of his journey.

'_How does it feel to look at you, in pure perfection?'_

"_You aren't me."_

'_You wish I was, you saw Blue flirt with them brunettes after all... and he complimented other girls with brown eyes because of their resemblance to his sweet tooth's favourite; Chocolate.'_

"_Yeah, well, I'm not you Fire."_

'_Yes, Red... but you wish you were – you wish you were Fire Red... a combination of us both, correct?'_

Red bit his lip nervously, knowing it was the truth. His inner guide was an image he made up, conjured of all the things he thought Blue wanted.

'_It's okay Red... it's okay... don't cry, I'll guide you through your journey, I'll help you with your decisions... I'll mould you into what Blue wants you to be.'_

Red collapsed to his knees, head buried in his hands, he muffled his cries, and he felt his heart tear.

"I'll never be what Blue wants... That's why you're here."

* * *

With nothing else but a dark creaking tower that almost hovered above Red, he decided to leave Lavender Town to explore his way towards Celadon City, the home of the Rainbow Badge and beautiful green scenery to boot.

Strolling along Route 8, battling the odd trainer who would kindly greet him, and even catching a few Pokémon just to add to the Pokédex pages as they weren't of much importance or use, unfortunately, to his battling team so instead, sent them to Professor Oak so they could play around in his back yard for temporarily "boxed" Pokémon.

Red waved goodbye to an elderly man, known as Stan, as he defeated him in battle and headed to the Underground Tunnel that connected Celadon to Lavender town.

His heart raced, in anticipation and he could feel Red laugh faintly in his mind – not even his presence troubled him as he was doing well – pedalling his bike as fast as his small feet would allow him.

He remembered how he got the bike; He was exploring Vermillion round the time he was training for his second badge and ran into a man, a short one, wearing a suit and large glasses that covered his face that bumped into him and knocked over his Pikachu.

The man became overly excited about seeing the Pikachu, chattered endlessly with Red before coaxing him into a nicely decorative building that was known as the Pokémon Fan Club much to his dismay because he was then bombarded by fans, and people begging to see his team.

It was about an hour before he could leave but as a thanks, the fan club leader – the old man who brought him into the noisy hellhole – gave him a ticket for a free bike in Cerulean, and so he raced there to obtain it to end his aching feet's misery.

Bursting out of the Underground Tunnel exit, Red successfully scared the local Pidgeys, Spearows and the few Meowths that was startled by the loud noise.

Red entered Celadon with pride and joy only to be greeted with confusion as littered around the city like trash, were Team Rocket grunts that suspiciously paced around the small city. Red frowned, and entered the Pokémon Center for a moment.

Before deciding to investigate this stressing mystery, Red decided to calm himself down – by taking a nosy around Celadon City's famous shopping mall. He came out with a three evolution stones, curious to their effect and stocking up on the usual – except now it was Super Potions and Great Balls.

The boy's tummy rumbled as he and his Pokémon laughed, which made them all stop.

"Maybe we should go find some kind of restaurant? How does that sound?"

The trainer took this as a good sign, as cheers erupted from all his Pokémon in happy cries. They set off to a café a woman directed them to, implying they must have good food.

Sitting at the bar, a man was groaning and grumbling on a near table, so Red been curious asked the man if anything was up but was greeted with a shiny metal box pushed in his face.

"Take it! I'm flat-out broke and everyone here knows it... Take the Coin Case kid, I don't need it... I always thought I'd win my money back too."

Red shrugged, took it after comforting the man and lending him a little cash, then finished his food.

"Let's try the slots then..."

Heading over to the Celadon Game Arcade, Red lost himself in vacationed bliss deciding he needed to have some fun more often and remember he was just a kid.

The guy behind the counter's jaw dropped when a heavy coin case filled with sparkling gold arcade tokens, Red was beaming on the other side.

"U-uh, what would you like sir...?"

Red looked over, he could buy some TMs or maybe a...

"Pokémon! I want that one, please!"

Pointing out a caged pink and blue Pokémon that looked rather cubist. It was rare, and known as a Porygon that was artificially made according to the Pokédex. Red gazed at it in wonder but sighed.

"I think Professor Oak might want to see this."

Therefore, Red took it to the Pokémon Center and sent it to the Professor, to study and look after.

* * *

This is chapter three! I'm getting through these quicker than I thought, to be honest.

Any questions and I'll willingly answer them, please review and tell others! Chapter four should be started and finished by tomorrow and maybe even Chapter five!


	4. Painting in Yellow

Fourth chapter; Woo! Sorry it took awhile, but I'm having exams.

Any questions, I'll answer them. Any requests or tips, I'll try put them to good use!

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NONE OF THE CHARACTERS USED, THIS IS PURELY FAN-BASED.

* * *

After that, Red wandered the area and stumbled into an Apartment block known as 'Celadon Mansion' so he investigated it thoroughly and at the very top, a nice man handed him a new member of his team known as an Eevee and a drink for later. It was a cute, normal type Pokémon that Bill had told him about and Red laughed as it sat on his head, its tail whipping Pikachu in the face constantly much to the Pikachu's irritation.

"Well, I can't keep you around right now little guy... You mind staying with Porygon, Mankey, Drowzee and the others?"

The Eevee chimed with an adorable 'meow' –like sound and Red took it to send to Professor Oak.

Afterwards, Red just laughed out of pure joy, surrounded by his Pokémon and soon he found himself by Celadon Gym next to a perverted man, whom was staring into the gym muttering about pretty girls.

Red shrugged, and took down all the Gym Trainers, with the goal in mind to take down Erika and obtain the Rainbow Badge.

"Hello, lovely weather isn't it...? It's so pleasant."

Red smiled, Erika was a pretty lady.

"Yes, it is... but I came not to discuss the weather with you, Miss Erika."

"Oh, dear... I must have dozed off a little there. Welcome."

"Thank you very much."

"I am Erika of Celadon City Gym, I am a student of the art of flower arranging, and reigning gym leader over grass-types – I didn't realize you wanted to challenge me... so be it, but I shall not lose."

"I'm afraid you'll have to!"

Pikachu jumped from behind Red's back, startling Erika's first Pokémon; Weepinbell shuffled back slightly and lashed its whip-like tail at the small mouse-like Pokémon. Pikachu growled and its attack came quick and swift, in the form of a Thunderbolt knocking the Weepinbell back but the Weepinbell's tail wrapped round the normal-type and coughed up purple particles, poisoning him before tossing the Pikachu aside.

"Pikachu!" Red stumbled for an antidote, grabbing it and healing his Pikachu.

"Come on buddy, let's finish her Weepinbell!"

Red whispered to his Pikachu, and gave it a high five before letting the electric mouse jump from his arm into the air.

"Go Pikachu! Use, um... Use Thunder!"

The electricity scorched the Weepinbell tremendously, and was scarcely breathing until Erika returned it.

"Well done, Red... but can your little spark beat this one?"

A Tangela entered the beautiful indoor garden arena, only to be greeted underneath with another Thunder attack followed up quickly by Slam before it had a chance to attack.

Because of frying the second Pokémon Erika had, she only had her ace in the hole left and Pikachu was poisoned once again in the second battle. Red thought carefully, before returning his comrade back to his shoulder and threw a second pokéball into the air revealing a fearsome fire dragon – Charizard – into the garden arena, the flame on its tail scorching a few of the plants.

A grass–type, Gloom, stared up and clenched itself before without warning, Erika barked out an order.

"Acid, Gloom!"

"Dodge it, Charizard!"

The fire-type soared down off the tree but as it flew ahead and past the Gloom, out of the flower came a burst of violet purple acid burnt the skin of his friend.

"Damn, recover using Flamethrower!"

Fearow, still in pain, glided in a U-Turn and then breathed out an immense amount of fire at the Grass-Type with a Flamethrower attack, blowing it backwards as it squealed in pain before picking it up.

"Gloom, stun it with Stun Spore!"

Orange-yellow dusty particles now spurted out of the flower centre, stunning the wings of the Charizard as it glided towards a crash, the dragon's grip on the flower Pokémon was slipping.

"Use Slash, don't let it go!"

The Charizard slashed at the grass-type before crashing with Erika's Gloom into the ground, causing dust to fly everywhere.

Charizard, paralyzed still, spread its wings weakly and flew towards Red and was absorbed by the red beam into the pokéball; When the dust cleared, Gloom was there, knocked out. Erika returned her defeated partner and looked towards Red with a gentle smile, accepting her defeat graciously.

"I concede defeat; I confer the Rainbow Badge to you, Red." – "Thank you, Miss Erika..."

"Oh, Red, take this with you too – I could sense you had a grass-type in your team and this will be handy – it's Mega Drain."

Red took the TM, slowly walked out before teaching it to his Ivysaur.

* * *

Black cap, black uniform, bright red 'R' embodied onto his shirt. He dashed past, like a Rapidash, and caught Red's attention automatically.

"_Team Rocket!"_

'_Oh, so you give chase then?'_

"_Well, they're criminals and that is reason enough to chase him down!"_

'_You've grown mature...'_

Red stopped giving chase as he entered the automatic doors of the arcade. He peered round to see the grunt near a poster. Approaching, he startled the grunt with little effort.

"W-What are you...? Stay away from this poster!"

"Poster? Why?"

"Go away now, or else!"

Red sent out his Ivysaur after a Raticate launched towards his face, fangs angrily bared but not anger towards Red but towards the pain and abuse, it felt from its trainer. Red's Ivysaur tangled its vines around the brown rat's body and squeezed tightly as two more emerged from the bulb and whipped it but this only proved more aggravation on the Raticate's part.

It struggled but Red took the opportunity to shout a command, trying not to concentrate on the Scary Face the normal type was making at them both.

Ivysaur took his time draining energy out of the Raticate until it hit unconsciousness, in which he dropped it gently to the floor using Giga Drain, and then as soon as it was returned and a lowly Zubat was sent out, it knocked it out cold instantly with a Vine Whip attack.

"I better go run and tell the Boss!" yelped the Grunt as he ran off into a hidden passageway.

Red stared at the poster, and fumbled around before noticing a button and pressing it instantly; it revealed a stairway down to a basement.

* * *

The boy looked round and explored the place, confused by the maze, which was the Team Rocket Hideout. Encountering and alarming many of the grunts turned out to be a bad idea.

"You broke into Team Rocket's operation?"

"_I didn't break into anything!"_

"Who are you? How did you get here?"

"_I... I don't know anymore..."_

"Boss says you can see ghosts with the Silph Scope..."

"_Do ghosts even exist?"_

"Why did you come here?"

"_I... It felt like the right thing to do..."_

Red battled his way through grunts, and when turning round to pick up an item nearby that may prove useful a bright light engulfed his Ivysaur. A sharp pain went through Red's neck as he spun round swiftly to encounter the final evolutionary form of Bulbasaur... His Ivysaur was a Venusaur.

"Wow... You're a Venusaur now! Sweet, I have all three fully evolved starters!"

He praised and petted the head of his fully-grown companion, and returned him to his pokéball before continuing to take down grunts in hopes of getting to the bottom of this Rocket mystery.

* * *

Red turned his attention back to the grunt he just defeated.

"Now, how do I get to your boss?"

"O-Okay, I'll talk, I'll talk; you have to take the elevator... but you need a card key to get it working..."

Red nodded, thanked him for the information and left to wipe out all the other grunts on the floors.

"Intruder alert!"

"_You intrude on the peace of Pokémon and humans alike!"_

"We got word you were coming from upstairs!"

"_Doesn't make no difference though, does it?"_

Red approached another grunt, he looked anxious and paranoid.

"You, do you have the way to get the elevator's working?"

The grunt jumped, obviously startled.

"The elevator isn't working? Who has the lift key? It isn't me, oh no, not me, definitely mistaken but it's okay – your journey and trouble-making must end here!"

"Don't think so."

Red released his Venusaur again, and almost instantly, it sliced scars into the Koffing's body but poison from a Sludge bomb etched into Red's Pokémon, causing him to grit his teeth.

"Use Mega Drain!"

Venusaur lashed out his whips, and eventually latched onto the floating gas chamber, draining it all of its energy, causing it to faint.

Red's Pikachu nudged Red with its tail before launching forth into the air above the now released Zubat, then with the absorbed energy of the surrounding electrical appliances, shocked it with a rippling Thunderbolt.

"No!"

Red stepped forward to the collapsed grunt, which fell backwards, and held his hand out.

The grunt scrambled upwards and ran off, before realizing, he had dropped the key but when he turned back, to see Red holding it he just gave up and ran off.

Red went down to the second floor again, and took the elevator to the fourth floor.

* * *

Red ran out of the elevator and onto the fourth floor. He was just about to advance when two figures, familiar ones, gave chase.

"You!" yelled the male with a blue jaw-length bob grabbed Red's wrist while his partner with long red hair down to her rear grabbed his other arm.

"How dare you humiliate us at Mt. Moon!" He continued yelling only to be silenced by his partner.

"It's payback time, you brat!" spat the woman, like venom.

Sending out Koffing and Ekans again, like last time, made it easy for Red to predict their moves. He sent out his Charizard and Blastoise to fight them off.

"Charizard, Flamethrower and Blastoise, Skull Bash!"

Koffing covered it and Ekans in smoke using Smokescreen, confusing the Pokémon before using Sludge Bomb on Charizard but Blastoise took the hit for its comrade.

"Blastoise, are you okay? Charizard! Flamethrower again!"

Charizard helped Blastoise up, before blasting an intense river of fire at the poison-type Pokémon.

"Wrap attack, Ekans!"

"Bash its skull in, Blastoise!"

Blastoise waited for the Ekans to wrap tightly around the giant water-type and smashed its head into the serpent causing it to fall into its partner, Koffing. The two fell into their trainers and fainted.

Jessie and James, as they were known, helped each other up after pushing aside their Pokémon as they sent their Meowth out.

Red and his Pikachu exchanged looks before Red threw him Pokémon in the air onto the back of the Charizard that hovered in the air above them all.

"Pikachu..."

Jessie and James gulped.

"Use thunder!"

Pikachu summoned all the electricity it could, and launched it out in a mass Thunder attack, knocking out not only the Pokémon around them, minus Red's team, and Jessie and James.

"Let's go, I need to know what is going on..."

Red led his team towards the final room. The big boss. He was going to find out what was happening.

* * *

Red stole his hat back from his Pikachu's head, which had shocked both the grunts guarding their Boss, but only a mild shock so they and their Pokémon were paralyzed.

One of them stared at Red.

"You... are going to ruin our plans again... Damn you..." he murmured, and eventually passed out from pain. Red kneeled down and put his bag underneath the grunt's head that he remembered from Mt. Moon.

Opening the door after tending to the passed out Grunt, and approached a middle-aged man with short brown hair that was receding slightly at the sides was seated on a large sofa, one arm overthrown on the back with the other resting on the top of the couch holding a Pokéball.

"So! I must say, I am impressed you got here." He said with a tone of actual surprise, as he rolled the pokéball between his large, rough fingers.

Red glared at the smug expression on the face of the Team Rocket Boss.

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

"Oh... well, I'll let you know since you've come this far. Team Rocket captures Pokémon from around the world, my boy as they're important tools to keep our criminal enterprise going..."

"Yeah well, who are you to do this?"

"I am Giovanni, Team Rocket Leader. Yourself?"

"Red of Pallet Town!"

'_Take him down, Red.' _

"And I'm going to stop your plan, I'm going to destroy Team Rocket and save Kanto from your schemes!"

Giovanni frowned, and stood up.

"How insolent... For that, you will feel a world of pain!"

The pokéball hit the ground, almost smashing with the brutal force, it was treated and slowly, with the same angry force came out a Pokémon known as Onix. Red's Venusaur from behind him stepped forward and kept steady, wise eyes on the stone snake as the rigid body slithered around the living plant.

The Venusaur wait until it was aiming to attack, and as it charged forward, horn first, a burst of razor-sharp leaves attacked it, cutting and slicing up the face of the rock-type. A barrage on the Onix's body followed as it attempted to tackle the blue-green Pokémon but unsuccessfully in its blind rage.

The angered man's frown creased further back into his skull, his eyes burning with irritation and frustration beyond Red's true understanding of the emotions; His dream was been pushed back by a mere child and his companions – impossible, had thought Giovanni. He had thought this child would show cowardice but instead he was familiar, a lot like the son he abandoned. Giovanni chuckled, seeing his redheaded son in the eyes of Red; Brave to stand up to the elder, and yet in fear of the unknowing.

He did not notice a Rhyhorn pop almost casually and confidently out of its holding place in the red-white ball, and seemingly threatening a big turtle with cannons in its shell. The two circled each other, dodging random attacks of pressurized water and charging rotating horns.

The Blastoise charged forward and glided past the Rhyhorn unexpectedly, Blastoise blasted it onto its feet using Water Gun.

"Blastoise, Skull Bash then Water Gun!"

The Blastoise started a strong run-up before smashing his skull head first into the Rhyhorn. The Rhyhorn was forced into the air by the impact.

Half way through the process, it started to thrash hitting the Blastoise in the face with a large Stomp of its armoured foot when it got too close. The Blastoise fell backwards, as Rhyhorn kicked it in the stomach. The Rhyhorn dropped down heavy, injuring itself and the floor underneath it, making a miniscule crater that almost dragged Red and Giovanni down into it with the steel armoured Pokémon.

"Blastoise, Bubblebeam!"

Blastoise glared before coating the room around Rhyhorn and Blastoise in bubbles, popping each one with a blast of water causing them to explode, knocking the armoured Pokémon about. Blastoise, almost consumed by power, repeatedly set off the explosive bubbles that sent the Rhyhorn into the surrounding walls despite Red's protests.

"Pika, Pi!" Red's Pikachu attempted to soothe the water-type.

"Blastoise! Blastoise, please stop now!"

Tears trickled down Red's face, and the Blastoise dropped the Rhyhorn from its grip turning to his trainer and looked almost apologetic in its unreadable eyes. It returned to Red's side, crying almost and tried to make comforting noise to stop Red's trembling as he stared at the half-dead Rhyhorn that lay before him in the crater it made beforehand.

"Pathetic creature... but yours..."

Red's sad eyes turned angry, almost like fire.

"Blastoise..."

The turtle looked up, in curiosity.

"_Throw it. Make sure it hits him._" Mumbled Red so only the Blastoise could hear; His eyes were fired up, full of rage and anger. Fire seemed to be in control of Red's actions, he seemed to be a Hero – he was going to protect the Pokémon of Kanto from this monster, Giovanni. At least, Fire was.

'_You can call upon me for strength, Red.'_

"_You are insane..."_

'_Insanity is the key to my strength, and besides, for you to create me you must be insane.'_

"_That makes sense..."_

'_Of course it does, embrace your insanity and release me; I'll take you places you wish to be – I will make you the person everybody wants to be, and the person Blue wants for himself. I will make you his and I will make you strong.'_

All it took was those words.

"_Okay."_

Therefore, Red unlocked the doors to his mind, and allowed insanity to take over.

* * *

FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK- FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK

* * *

Red lingered in Vermillion City a bit longer, sitting with his legs swinging off the docks next to the person who made his heart both race and ache; Blue.

Blue was watching the S.S. Anne in the distance, a look of loss in his eyes but replaced quickly by a sturdy, cold gaze as he tilted his head back at an angle to see Red's smiling face.

"Thanks for sitting here with me, Red..." he muttered, his eyes focusing on Red's fingertips and how warm they were compared to his own as they grazed against one another.

"Not at all! – I did beat you in our battles every time, so this is the least I could do!" a chorus of laughter filled the empty tension between them before Red's smile fell only a bit. "But really, it's nice doing this... it's like we're kids again."

"We aren't kids, Red."

"I know, I know... it's just... I feel like I've lost you a little, you know?"

Blue stared, a layer of surprise under his ice mask, with intensity before turning away with flushed cheeks.

"I wouldn't know."

Blue and Red continued to stare at the sunset, in complete silence with no tension and no emotion passing between them.

Until Blue felt warmth clutching his hand, Red was holding his hand. Why was he holding his hand? Why didn't Blue pull away?

Blue's mind raced with questions, his face flustered red.

"Hey, Blue..."

Blue turned, stammering for a response or an excuse or something to get Red to let go. His stutters and incomplete sentences were pulled from his mouth and tossed into the air as Red's lips brushed against Blue's in a chaste, sweet kiss that made Blue's chapped, icy lips tingle ever so slightly like static electricity... no, raw electricity – pure heavy voltage.

"Blue, I-" Red muttered against Blue's lips until he was pushed onto his back, sprawled on the deck.

"You freak! What do you think you're doing?"

Blue's face with flustered, with embarrassment and rage, as he wiped vigorously at his mouth to prove a point to Red.

"I just thought..."

"You thought wrong! I'm not some fag, and definitely not for you!"

Red sat upright and reached for Blue, in hopes of maybe reaching for his heart, but was swatted away angrily. He let his hand drop and his eyes glazed over, full of sorrow and rejection.

Blue left him there that night.

Red was left rejected, hurt and broken.

Blue ran away confused, enraged and...

In denial?

* * *

END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK

* * *

The Blastoise captured the unconscious Rhyhorn in its clutches and upon 'Fire Red's command' threw it towards Giovanni, but he dove out of the way and a sly looking cat Pokémon, Persian, popped out of its pokéball protectively shielding Giovanni. Red panicked slightly, pushing Fire back into the depths of his mind and returned his Blastoise, allowing his Charizard to be released and stand against the large monster.

The Persian growled slightly, before whipping its tail towards the fire dragon only for it to be grabbed, tossed and a Slash attack to bring it further into the flooring.

The luxury cat-type confused to the whereabouts bashed its furry tail into the dirt only to make the Charizard burn it with Ember, as Persian shook it off but was greeted by a tightened grip, and a dizzy flight into the air before kissing the ground with its face again in a Seismic Toss.

The Persian smirked, withstanding the fighting style just before breaking through dizzy feeling and using Pay Day attack on Charizard. Charizard stumbled back, shielding itself from the coins and created a miniature crater, where he stood his ground.

"Don't worry, Charizard! You can do it!"

Grabbing the Persian as it dodged and bit at the fire dragon, before critically burning it with Ember again, singeing its fur to a black colour.

Red panted slightly, letting out the breath he had been holding in as he returned his Charizard; his gaze met Giovanni's enraged but impressed one, not that the man would admit it.

"What? This can't be..."

Giovanni shook his head, and returned both Pokémon to their respected pokéballs giving a slight growl at the devices before casting his eyes on an uneasy, exhausted Red.

"I see... you raise your Pokémon with the utmost care. A child like you would never understand what I hope to achieve..."

"What do you hope to achieve, Giovanni?" Red resorted, trying to get on the same level of understanding.

"I shall step aside for now, I just hope we meet again... this was an amusing source of entertainment for me. I hope we meet again... Red."

Red went to grab the man, his hand outstretched but never reaching.

"Hideout base escape defensive system, active – Smokescreen."

"Smokescreen activated."

Within a couple of minutes, the entire of the hideout was encased in smoke; as it began to clear, Red's coughing ceased to see a scope of some sorts, it had SILPH CO. painted permanently on the side in white so it would stand out against the yellow-orange colour of the scope's body. He obtained it, remembering something about Silph been in Saffron City and it been able to see ghosts or something...?

Ghosts.

"Pokémon Tower..."

* * *

Red wandered into Pokémon Tower, ascending the first set of stairs; He wanted to try out this Silph Scope to see if it really worked and if ghosts were real – after all, he was sure Giovanni had left it intentionally for him to use.

He looked up to see Blue, he was fairly surprised and was just about to greet him with joy when he saw tears streaming his face which looked exhausted, and pale. Almost sickly green.

Blue jumped a little when Red hissed, having hurt his foot against a dent in the floor and almost tripping; "Oh hey, Red!" he tried to sound confident, and cocky but sounded rather broke. His voice cracking a little.

He wiped his tears, almost looked like they were not there to wipe to begin with.

"So what brings you here?" a sneer. "Is your Pokémon dead?" Red heard him click his tongue, almost like a repeat in his brain as it echoed.

"Well hey, look at that, it's alive." He laughed, almost bitterly as Red's Pikachu made its presence known.

His laughter died out and he took out his pokéballs, two in each hand with the exception to a fifth still attached to his belt; "At least, I can make them faint... Let's go Red!"

Blue's Fearow flapped its wings immediately, and sent a gust at Red's Pikachu knocking it backwards off Red's shoulder.

"Pikachu, are you okay?"

The electric rodent stood on its hind legs and charged an electric current before mass-producing a shockwave that shocked everything, even the trainers, in the room. The Fearow became paralyzed and before it could even try to react, was met with a small furry body to the beak, jolting its neck back so hard that it passed out.

Blue gritted his teeth as Red called back his Pikachu.

Venusaur versus Shellder was next up; a simple battle between the weakest members of either party. It ended rather quickly on Venusaur's part with a quick Razor Leaf fainting the poor water-type. An instant win.

Blastoise went up against Blue's Vulpix, a battle that interested Blue knowing the water-type was a huge powerhouse in Red's team.

"Vulpix, focus!"

The Kadabra's eyes gazed and it focused on its target carefully.

However, Red had other plans – "Use Bite then Water Gun!"

The bite made the vixen Pokémon flinch and run away only to be caught in a vortex of water, but still standing – only just – the Vulpix sent a spiral of weak flames at the Blastoise that just shook them off.

"Try again, Blastoise – Use Water Gun!"

Blastoise sent out a large burst of water from its cannons and as it hit the Vulpix causing it to swing out of focus, the two trainers witnessed it been smashed into a wall and tombstones, damaging the tower even more with their battle.

Blue resorted to his ground-type Pokémon, while Red kept out his Blastoise – It was another quick battle that consisted of Blastoise powering down the Sandshrew with multiple blasts of Water Gun attacks.

"Okay then, my last resort; Eevee!"

Red released his Charizard out, and gulped; Blue's entire team had changed – their faces once filled with innocent curiosity of other Pokémon and the world around them was morphed into a great distrust of Red, and an unleash on its strength.

Charizard, standing taller than the feline, pushed through his fears and with Red's orders flying about the room, wrapped its hands around the tiny, darting Pokémon eventually and as the Eevee whom thrashed recklessly kicking out at the fire dragon Pokémon, Charizard scorched an immense amount of health from the normal-type that it was unfair.

"Venusaur... put Eevee out of its misery, use Slash!"

The sharp cutting claws like daggers, sliced at the normal-type but only enough damage to knock the Pokémon into a slumber.

Red looked on, ignoring Blue's anger and pent-up frustration, and stared at the Pokémon that lay defeated at his hands, unable to look Blue in the eyes.

"_I'm sorry; Blue... forgive me, please."_

* * *

"I took it easy on you... that is all!"

Red mumbled an apology, both to Blue before standing up, stumbling over to Blue exhausted and leaned into Blue.

Blue coughed slightly, a blush spreading on his cheeks as he pushed Red back but steadied him by holding him upright by the shoulders.

The orange-brunette sighed, and sat Red down in his lap as he slept without really thinking after he seated himself against his Rattata's tombstone.

"You're an idiot, Red..."

By the time, Red was deep into his sleep to the point of mumbling; Blue was released of most of his anger and enjoyed the moment. He would not admit it though.

When Red awoke, Blue had left him to sleep in the cold tower alone. Red smiled, blushing slightly as he found a note addressed to him scribbled quickly and the ink still not fully dried up.

It summarized Blue's feelings towards the moment they had together, and how he wished he could return to those times. Red frowned, frustrated by that but as he read on, he lightened up.

Blue had also put that his Pokémon were in good care – not as they had seemed before, and he would tell stories of their times together, and how maybe – just maybe – the two trainers could keep in contact when Blue became champion. Red laughed, knowing how confident Blue was about their shared goal.

A howl and feminine cackles echoed throughout Pokémon Tower, and so, Red ascended upwards defeating all human foes in a Pokémon battle in where no harm was truly done to reach the top of the mystery known as Pokémon Tower.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed this chapter; I tried hard since it is difficult but yay, Blue is returning some of those feelings to Red admittedly!


	5. Painting in Golden Yellow

Fifth chapter, I would say we are doing well!

I hope everyone is okay, and please recommend this fanfiction to other Originalshippers like you because I would love to write more for others. In addition, you will need to stick around if you are fans of Fullmetal Alchemist pairings such as Elricest, Tringhamcest, Hughes/Roy, Roy/Havoc, etc or for other Pokémon fanfictions, I will be doing such as Tarnished Silver and Fool's Gold or Shades, Tones & Monochromes!

* * *

Throughout the tower, Red only saw the colour red itself. A shade of red unbearable to the poor boy, it was a disgusting brown-tinted shade and looked almost as sticky and vile as the fluid it reminded him of; blood.

It burned into his eyes, he could visibly see in the back of his mind the horrible tortures and deaths of each resting Pokémon. Only one think taunted his mind truly, and it wasn't the Marowak and occasional Cubone corpses he could catch in sight or the scent of decay stealthily invading his nasal passageways. It was the name engraved, freshly as well, into the gravestone he rested against when Blue had left him there in the shuddering cold of the tall, mysterious tower.

"_I can't believe his Rattata is dead; all because of me!"_

'_It was not your fault.'_

"_Of course it was! I was the one who attacked it; I was the one who ordered my Pokémon to defeat it!"_

'_You did not realize the damage; you didn't know it'd die.'_

"_That doesn't... It doesn't change the fact that I was responsible for Rattata's death!"_

'_He never told you, and his Rattata took serious injuries from your Pokémon so yes in sense you are responsible, and therefore destroyed the childhood innocence he seemed to have before I existed but there was no Pokémon Centre on the ship, seen as it is a ship after all. Red, you are not responsible. You did not take away his Raticate, death did. Are you death? No. It was not your fault.'_

"_Then why do I feel so guilty? And sick to the stomach at my own mind, my own body... myself?"_

'_Because you aren't looking at yourself from the right perspective. You see yourself as a murderer because you took something precious from a loved one; that is why you feel sick and guilt-ridden.'_

"_What perspective do I look at myself from then, Fire? Tell me that much!"_

'_...One day, Red. One day.'_

Red just felt even sicker, could feel it brewing in his stomach. Why wouldn't Fire just go away?

Clearing the path with his Pikachu's Thunder and Thunderbolt attacks, he continued on – defeating all the possessed Channeler's Pokémon.

* * *

Heading towards the stairs, guarded by his electric-type, a malevolent voice echoed.

"_**Be gone... Intruders..."**_

Red jumped back and stumbled onto his backside as a ghost leaped rapidly into view, almost as if it was about to eat him. He grabbed his bag while his Pikachu stood nearby on guard until he retrieved the Silph Scope, rumoured to give the user the ability to see ghosts.

He stared at the purple, shapeless form with glowing yellow eyes through the scope to unveil the ghost of a Marowak, the mother of a Cubone, with glowing red eyes full of rage and anger.

"W-Wait!" Red yelled out as the ghost Marowak, seemingly solid, smashed the bone club into the ground causing a tremor of sorts to shake only the section of the floor he was on; almost as if the ghost Marowak was manipulating the very core of the tower.

'_The Marowak isn't listening...'_

"_**Be gone; be gone with you intruders until I retrieve my beloved son!"**_

'_Told you so...' _

"_Then, I'll catch her!"_

'_It isn't possible to catch a ghost, Red.'_

"_But the movements are so realistic, so solid, so alive... nothing so sad and pent-up in rage can truly be dead."_

'_Blue is dead.'_

"_Blue is alive and breathing, moron..."_

'_Dead inside. Blue is dead inside.'_

"_..."_

Red, who clearly wasn't focusing on reality, was almost without a head until his small rodent Pokémon slammed its heavy yet tiny body into the Marowak and it seemed to scar its skull helmet but only a dent.

In retaliation, it head butted into Red's Pikachu, Red catching it as he stood up and steadied his ground while the battle ensued.

Red chewed on his lower lip, before attempting to pull out a strategy from the air as he usually did.

"Pikachu, try Thunder!"

It proved rather ineffective, and the electric move wavered when greeted eye to eye with a intimidating Leer, Pikachu lowered its defences and cowered against Red's shoulder.

Marowak glared, focusing carefully as she stood clinging to her bone club before she let it go in a Boomerang still glaring with bloodthirsty eyes. Initially, it smacked Pikachu round the back of the head into an unconscious state and Red could only try one thing; to catch it.

Red sent out his Venusaur whom held down the struggling mother with its strengthened vines, while Red prayed upon the restless ghosts of the Tower to assist him in catching this Pokémon for Kanto's sake.

Ultimately, when the Great Ball was thrown, Red was distraught when it appeared caught and the scope claimed that it couldn't be caught, the ghost of the Marowak becoming free once again.

'_Told you. Again.'_

"_Shut up!"_

'_Just put her out of her misery...'_

"Marowak... Marowak, please calm down for the sake of your son and the Pokémon that rest here!"

The Marowak ghost stopped thrashing and fighting against the vines, and glared at Red.

"_**Human! Your kind killed me, and took away my son, where is he?"**_

"Marowak, I'm sorry but... in the current circumstance, I think your son to be dead..."

The motherly Marowak thrashed again, yelling accusations at the poor trainer.

"_**You kill my son? You kill what I raise, and love? You murderer!"**_

"No! You misunderstand, you don't understand – the man who killed your baby was a mere coward by the name Giovanni who hides behind men in black!"

The Marowak's eyes narrowed at Red, as if to take in the information before calming down again.

"_**...Men in black coated in the blood of my fellow friends; I remember now. I was so cloaked in rage and sorrow without my son I never realized..."**_

"So can you... can you rest now?"

"_**Human, put me out of my misery and send me to my son – I shall let you pass..."**_

"Thank you..."

"_**Please, avenge the Pokémon of the tower – avenge me, avenge my son..."**_

With that, Venusaur's whips grabbed nothing; purely grasping at the air where the Marowak once struggled but now, the mother had gone to find her son on an astral plane that no living being could even dream to grasp the concept of.

It had departed to the afterlife...

* * *

Letting go of the banister of the freezing cold stairway, Red was greeted to an even thicker blanket of fog that gave off the ominous atmosphere. Surrounding the room was silver and golden tombstones, all clustered together – the gold tombstones were numerous and if from a bird's viewpoint, the silver looked like the middle of a pokéball that sealed it and separated the two halves while the gold acted as the red and white of a pokéball.

Two familiar rocket grunts – Jessie and James - dressed in white attire with bloodstains that blended in with the 'R' circled the trainer.

"..."

Jessie sneered at Red, looking him up and down before gesturing to the elderly man kept hostage at the back of the tower's room.

"Grampa here wanted to complain, so we're setting him straight."

James interrupted, earning a glare from Jessie, which he attempted to ignore.

"So render yourself invisible, or prepare to fight!"

Red laughed, grinning as he released his Charizard and Blastoise out of their pokéballs – "Fight it is!"

James and Jessie's Weezing and Arbok versus Charizard and Blastoise.

Arbok shot a thin, almost invisible at Blastoise but Charizard caught it with his hand and the poison ran through his vein.

"Char..." the fire dragon, groaned in pain, as Blastoise questioned its health. Charizard stood up and blasted the cobra Pokémon with intense flames then slashed it despite being leered at.

Blastoise was having no trouble against Weezing, despite also being poisoned by a Sludge attack, sneaking in Water Gun and Bubblebeam attacks between various Sludge attacks; Weezing and Arbok fainted in minutes.

Finally, they sent out their Meowth but it was quickly shocked into defeat with a critical Thunder attack. Pikachu high-fived Red before standing on his shoulder, puffing its chest out.

"You will regret this!" James spat, trying to hide his fear.

"Looks like Team Rocket are blasting off again!" – Weezing used Smokescreen to mask their getaway, also causing Red to cough until the smoke cleared.

Red walked the long corridor of tombs, his eyes widening in fear as a Rattata scrambled across, stopped in front of him and leered; it didn't budge.

"_A Rattata, a Rattata... Rattata... Blue... Blue's Rattata. Dead. Dead because of me. Me. I killed a Pokémon. Murdered it, lifeless Rattata. Hurt Blue it did. Destroyed him. He hates me. Blue. Hate me? He does, oh god... Oh god..."_

'_Get a grip, Red._

Red's mind began to unwind, dropping to his knees and tears streaming down his pale cheeks. Paler than white, like a ghost.

Across the room, an old man known as Fuji watched concerned for the boy; he'd never seen someone so out of control yet he couldn't help whilst been cornered off by the grunt.

Red was losing control.

Fire was gaining control.

Slowly. Surely.

Fire, Red's brave and what he believed to be handsome persona; the hero, the good person but deep down?

Fire was crazy, crazier than Red.

Fire would do anything to be Blue's, because that's what Red desired. He was the King of Red's mind, King for a day it would seem.

Now, he had his own desires – Red's body.

"Heheheh... Charizard, Blastoise; Bite and Slash."

'_Slice its stomach open, mangle it, eat it – just show Red how crazy I can be!'_

Charizard and Blastoise didn't question Fire's authority, not noticing the difference like Pikachu did. The fire and water-type slashed and bit the wild Rattata near to death. Red screamed inside. He screamed loud.

And damn, did it hurt.

* * *

Red and Fire stood facing one another, in Red's mind or as Fire loved to call it; The Core of Insanity.

"Why are you doing this?" Red started out, breaking the intense silence.

"Doing what?"

Red frowned, clenching his fists and took a step forward before waving his arms around, emphasising his point.

"This! The control, the cruelty, the horror!"

"Oh? You mean the entertainment?"

"Entertainment?" hissed the Original, his face twisted in disgust.

Fire shrugged, frowning.

"I find it entertaining, then again I'm shocked you don't – was it the Raticate? Blue gotcha' tongue on that one, eh?"

"Why are you doing this...? You've... never been like this..."

"What? The first few months before our journey?"

Silence echoed, Red unable to give a response.

"Exactly... Red, I'm a manifestation of you. I'm your hopes, your dreams, your sorrow and anguish. I'm the good person, or the bad person. I thrive for Blue's love just as much as you do."

"Wait... you... you love Blue as well? Separately?"

"I'm in love with Blue on an entirely new level to you Red; you still cling to dreams of happiness. I thrive for something more... exotic." Fire breathed in, almost as if to show the exotic dreams through his heart rate.

_If he had one._

"Y-you're a monster..." Red shuddered in Fire's presence. Where had he gone wrong for his own ego to go out of whack?

_I let him live. I let him grow inside my mind. Like a tumour._

Fire's frown lit up into a nasty smirk full of horror and secrets.

"A monster? If I'm a monster, Red, what does that make you?"

Red ignored it, gained control, as Fire seemed to blur and fade. Red returned to reality.

'_For the time being_.'

* * *

When Red awoke from been unconscious, he was greeted by the real world with a friendly, elderly face belonging to the man who was held captive by Team Rocket.

"Team Rocket!" Red jolted upwards, exclaiming loudly. The elder was alarmed and as he regained his cool, he laughed.

"Heh, you saved me kid... Thank you."

"Oh, I did?" Mr Fuji nodded.

"Oh yeah, I did! Well, it's okay – why did they take you hostage anyway?"

"Oh well, I actually came here of my own free will in hopes of calming the Marowak's spirit. She has finally left our world and with that, I must thank you so please...?"

"Red" introduced the trainer.

"Red, follow me to my home, okay? You know where right, it's at the foot of this very tower."

Red healed his Pokémon at the Pokémon centre, before opening the door to Mr. Fuji's house.

Mr. Fuji looked up from his photograph of what seems to be himself and a Doduo.

"Ah, Red... So I see you are filling up the Pokédex?" Red nodded quickly but subtly. "Your quest requires strong dedication. Without the deep love for your Pokémon, your quest may fail."

"I love my team dearly... No, they aren't my team Mr. Fuji."

"Oh?" He sounded surprised. "What are they then, Red?"

"They are my friends."

Mr. Fuji stood, staring at this devoted trainer, who dutifully respected his Pokémon and saw them as companions – not tools for war.

"I'm not sure if this will help you, but I want you to have it... It's my Pokéflute – I used to use it to get my Doduo to sleep when it struggled to slumber. I think you could put good use to it."

Red took the yellow, red and white flute gratefully; staring at how well looked after it was.

"Thank you..." – "No, thank you Red."

* * *

Red growled at the large, sleeping Pokémon – Snorlax – and took out the Pokéflute since attacks wouldn't work.

"Let's hope this works..."

Red breathed in before playing a tune on the flute, eyes closed as he drowned himself in the melodies.

"Snor..."

The Snorlax started to groan, slowly sitting up which caught Red's attention, before attacking in a grumpy rage.

"Okay, now to get you out of the way!"

* * *

Red grinned, entering Saffron City for the first time. The guard who was been rather... irritating... beforehand allowed Red to enter because they exchanged words and on Red's part, a bottle of water. If he had known the guard wanted a drink before, Red would've gotten in sooner.

Regardless of that, Red strolled round Saffron and noticed a large shiny skyscraper as he walked past the main town square.

"Woah... that's huge."

Red stopped to notice a young woman, in her twenties at least, arguing with Team Rocket Grunts.

"_Team Rocket?"_

_Have you only just noticed? They're everywhere...'_

Red frowned and was just about to approach the grunts, before realizing that if they were everywhere and they had the Silph Scope at one point (stolen obviously), and that large skyscraper would be...

"Silph Co!"

_Bingo._

Red snuck inside, the guard outside was taking a snooze and his loud snoring masked Red's footsteps with ease, and found the lobby empty; completely devoid of human beings of any sort, Red headed towards the stairs and entered bravely and ready to face the consequences.

Red cleared the floors, completely lost of where he was since Silph Co. had these weird portals to get around to certain parts of the building.

Stumbling around, back on the fifth floor, Red defeated another grunt to add to his list and he and his Pokémon were exhausted from the constant on run of the grunts.

He wandered round the back of the small passageway and leaned against a dial-up phone, groaning as something continued to dig into his neck painfully.

Moving back, pushing off the wall, Red found a small card that was jammed into one of the slots that hid the contraptions that made the telephone work and after pulling it out vigorously for about ten minutes it was revealed to be the needed Card Key to open the locked doors.

Red grinned, and started to find his way around much more easily.

After nosing around, and training his Pokémon by defeating most of the grunts that hadn't ran away, he came across the way around.

* * *

Warped to a locked room on the seventh floor, Red looked round and someone caught his eye.

"_Blue."_

Blue smirked, as their eyes caught each other. Red lost in his gaze, Blue steadily isolating himself from Reds.

"What kept you, Red?"

"I uh... Um, I-"

A long laugh, drawn out and faded.

"I thought you'd show up if I waited long enough... I guess Team Rocket slowed you down, not that I care."

Unsteady atmosphere, eyes averted. Blue looked doubtful despite his confidence in the statement.

"I saw you come into Saffron, so I wanted to see if you got better as a trainer – though, I guess that's asking too much of you."

"Blue, why do we keep doing this?

"Hm?"

"Why do you keep fighting against me? Can't we be friends...? I mean, I wanted to be... never mind... I just get mixed feelings from you."

Blue blushed slightly, a red hue overlooking his ego.

"Mixed feelings? Are you having a laugh, Red? I have no feelings of any sort for you!"

Red grimaced; Blue's eyes weren't even directing themselves at him. More like distracting himself by staring past Red.

'_Like a ghost.'_

"...Fine, I'll play along. Let's battle."

Pokéballs at the ready, feelings set aside; Battle commenced.

* * *

Blue released his Sandslash to go against Red's Charizard.

Sandslash versus Charizard.

Charizard caught Sandslash in a vortex of embers, critically burning the ground-type. Sandslash put out the fire and temporarily blinded Charizard by kicking dirt and dug up sand from under the building's floorboards but it didn't last long as the fire-type recklessly aimed another Ember attack, only just hitting the Sandslash, knocking it out.

Red sent out his Blastoise to go against Blue's Ninetales.

"Nice fire-type, Blue..." – "Yeah, much stronger than your Charizard, no wonder you had to refer to a type advantage to try win!"

Red scoffed and ended the round quickly with a Water Gun attack, being as super effective as it was.

Switched; Venusaur versus Cloyster.

"Venusaur, use Vine Whip then follow up with Mega Drain!"

Venusaur's vines wrapped round the struggling long body and drained a fair amount of energy but as the energy was drained and Cloyster was released, stumbled then withdrew into its shell, passing out seconds later.

Kadabra, Blue's second to last Pokémon stood there with its arms crossed against one another and eyes closed as it calmed its mind and focused on the battle at hand.

Red's new companion – Snorlax - had different ideas, and went into battle, lazily, with a Thunderbolt attack. The attack landed critically and the Kadabra stumbled back before resorting to a Psybeam attack that hit, hurtling the Snorlax backwards before it regained balance. The battle ensued between physical strength and mental strength.

In the end, physical strength won with a hearty Body Slam attack; Red cheered. Blue swore under his breath, tears swelling in his eyes before he wiped them away so Red wouldn't notice.

"Well, that's it then... Go, Jolteon!"

The yellow, sparky feline Pokémon stood on its four legs, filled with pride as its fur crackled with electricity.

Suddenly, two paws flew into the air in two kicks hitting Snorlax hard. With little health left, Red healed Snorlax.

"Body slam, Snorlax!"

It brought Jolteon to a stagger, but it stood and brushed off the attack. Bringing down another rain of Double Kick, Snorlax continued to stagger backwards until it had charged it's special attack Hyper Beam but kept it steady until Red's order, Pikachu ran and stood atop of Snorlax's head and charged a Thunder Attack.

"Pikachu... Snorlax..." The yellow electric mouse breathed in and out, matching Red's irregular breathing pattern.

Red's eyes met with Blues.

"Thunder. Hyper Beam."

The battle ended.

Blue saw something in Red for the first time.

He saw determination.

He saw regret.

He saw love.

* * *

A man, panicked yet full of overwhelming relief ran up to Red as Blue ran off – casually, he'd call it – and let out a beaming smile, one an employee would be expected to give at work to co-worker, boss or customer.

"You're not a rocket! You've come to save us?"

"Yeah, I did..." Red calmly replied, his smile growing but it was faint.

The man noticed and frowned before returning the smile.

"Why, thank you! Well, I know this is so very unexpected and everything but because you are going to save Silph Co and everyone in it... I want you to have this Pokémon!"

Red blinked.

"_A Pokémon?"_

The male worker pushed the delicate pokéball into Red's hands.

"It's a Lapras, a rare intelligent Pokémon that we kept in the lab but in my opinion, it'd be better off with someone like you."

Red smiled, and hugged the man.

"Thank you..." came the quiet whisper before Red departed to fight the boss of Team Rocket a second time.

* * *

"Stop! Our boss is in a meeting!"

Jessie and James rushed up; Red was amazed, for having tasted defeat many times they were rather stubborn.

"You better not disturb him!"

Red sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Pikachu..."

All that could be seen was smog from Weezing, the flicker of a tail from Arbok and the claws of the Meowth then their defeat after a roar of Thunder caused them all to faint.

"Like always..."

The duo retreated again, as usual.

* * *

Before Red opened the door that separated him and Giovanni, Fire decided to take a stand.

'_Let me fight him.'_

"_No, why should I?"_

'_I... I know this sounds stupid, but I want to help.'_

"_You? You want to help me. I thought you wanted to steal my body and act on your own free will!"_

'_...That is true, but I want to help you defeat Giovanni. I wish to speak to him, I may not agree with you but I don't agree with him. The way he treats Pokémon and even people are disgusting.'_

"_At least we agree on one thing then."_

'_So?'_

"_...Fine, you can but if anything funny goes on, I'll make sure your voice is never heard of again."_

'_...Agreed.'_

* * *

"Ah Red, so we meet again!"

Red's usual cheery grin or irritated frown wasn't there. Just a menacing, evil smirk that matched Giovanni's – like a mirror.

"The President and I are just discussing a vital business proposition."

"Oh? Is that so, Giovanni?"

Giovanni frowned.

"I was under the impression you were holding all of the Silph Co staff, including the president of the company, under captive for your own personal gain."

"Keep your nose out of grown-up matters..." Giovanni threatened lowly.

Red chuckled, except it wasn't Red. It never was. Giovanni sensed that.

"Who are you...? What happened to the boy?"

"I am Red, just... a different side to him. You may call me Fire, Giovanni and now, I'd like to stop your pettiness and interrupt your meeting by taking the President with me. Now."

"I don't think so, instead you shall experience a world of pain!" chuckled Giovanni, his voice becoming more hoarse and drier with each word and each step as he progressed towards Re- No, towards Fire.

Fire smirked.

"Bring it."

Reaching for the first pokéballs at their disposal.

"Pikachu!" – "Nidorino!"

"Use Poison Sting, now!"

"Attack with Thunderbolt!"

A ripple of electric energy pulsated violently through the air and hit the Nidorino, who launched a small sting that got Pikachu straight in the chest but not in deep enough to inject the poison effectively.

"Follow up that move with Slam!"

Giovanni scolded angrily at his Pokémon, kicking it harshly.

"Horn attack, you useless piece of!"

"Now, now, Giovanni... Children are present."

Fire laughed in Giovanni's face – his insanity flaring like hell's fire. Giovanni's mind began to wander as the battle continued his commands and angry shouts drowned out by memories.

Fire noticed this.

"You giving up on me now, Giovanni?"

Giovanni growled, and sent out his second Pokémon, as his Nidorino was knocked out, Persian.

Snorlax, sent out straight after Pikachu, let out a violent Hyper Beam – the frequency of the physic move was equal to that of an actual Earthquake.

The Persian stammered a little, but kept her ground well before whipping her tail at the normal-type who sent a Thunderbolt attack back at the ground-type. It caught the Nidoqueen off guard as Butterfree managed to avoid a quick Double Kick before swooping in another Hyper Beam, blinding the Pokémon temporarily and hitting it hard.

Giovanni's Nidoqueen continuously missed during her blind time period and was eventually involuntarily unconscious for battle.

Following up was Venusaur and Rhyhorn but it was a one hit knockout move with Vine Whip, which slapped the armoured Pokémon around silly.

Fire laughed hysterically, his ego uplifted by Giovanni's poor battling skills. Giovanni was shaken by Fire's cackling, and even a little scared as he saw himself in the boy. In this new, side of Red.

It was disgusting, vile. Insane. Giovanni started to doubt his actions a little.

No, Giovanni thought. Giovanni knew what he wanted, and that was wealth, fame and power. It was to unleash his wrath upon Kanto. He was going to destroy Red no matter what it took. No matter what side of him; Red or Fire, he was going to win.

Giovanni clenched his final pokéball and released out the Nidoqueen that irritated Fire who still found this amusing, in the sickest ways.

"Is that it? This is barely an appetizer, you disappoint me Giovanni – what leader are you to be so weak and feeble?"

"You little psychopath...!" Giovanni yelled. "Nidoqueen, crush him!"

"Lapras, use Ice Beam!"

The Ice Beam froze the arms of the ground-type Pokémon, and chilled its child. The Boss' Pokémon glared at the newest member of Fire/Red's team and thrashed angrily but was hit with another Ice Beam that froze from the feet upwards.

Fire smirked, an evil smirk that made Giovanni cringe slightly.

"Finish his Pokémon."

The rare intelligent Pokémon Body Slammed into the Ground-type, knocking it out.

Giovanni stared.

Giovanni had lost.

And he wasn't happy.

* * *

"Argh, I lost again?"

"Damn right, you did."

"Blast it all! You ruined our plans for Silph Co!" Giovanni grabbed Fire's shoulders – shocking the boy – and shook him violently but the shaking stopped and he started laughing (mainly to himself).

"No... No... Team Rocket isn't over, never forget Red or Fire or whoever you may be... That all Pokémon exist for Team Rocket!"

Giovanni returned his Pokémon and started to head towards the door before grunts started gathering around him.

"I must go... but I shall return!"

And with that, Team Rocket had fled.

Fire chuckled until a sharp pain rippled through his being; Red was fighting back, uncontrollably.

Red screamed, and thrashed, and yelled in agony and pain – writhing in need to exit the horrors of his own mind. Fire tried to fight back, to keep control but instead Red pushed through screaming. Continuously screaming even when in control and eventually passed out from mental stress and trauma.

* * *

The President and his assistant ran towards the boy when a woman with dark, long hair in a pink/blue jumpsuit of some kind.

"Oh, Miss Sabrina!"

Sabrina sent out her Alakazam to carry the boy telekinetically.

"So, he was the one to save our city?"

"Yes, he saved all of Silph Co on his own! I would never forget this boy in our moment of peril... Are you going to be taking him?"

"Yes. I believe so."

"Well, can you give him this when he awakes?"

The president passed Sabrina a purple pokéball with an M marked on the front.

Sabrina nodded, and smiled at him, giving a courteous nod.

"Thank you, Miss Sabrina... I know he'll be in good hands with you."

"Why thank you, now I have to get back to the gym and put this boy into a bed."

* * *

That's it for Chapter 5, next is the filler chapter!

It will be called Primary Colours. I'd love reviews!


	6. Filler: Primary Colours

The filler/bonus chapter!

We meet Leaf Green (Blue in the manga) and we get Blue's side of the situation; what more could you want? Enjoy this chapter, and thank you!

* * *

Long, flowing blue-black hair.

Deep ocean blue eyes.

Tight clothing hugging long-wanted curves.

This was Sabrina, the young physic prodigy of Saffron City and Gym Leader specializing in Physic Pokémon.

Blue's eyes followed her figure up and down, scanning for any sign of attraction, he should have; why did he not have that smirk and why could he not put on the charm that wooed many women of a large range of ages?

Sighing, Blue shrugged it off as Sabrina just not been his type of woman and followed her down the halls of Sabrina's home towards the door he dreaded much like the news he received from the gentleman who lent him the Physic TM.

* * *

FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK

* * *

"_This is the TM Physic, use it wisely... I hope the other boy I gave this TM to, is okay, I heard he is in a coma..."_

_Blue's smirk dropped and he looked up quickly._

"_What boy?"_

"_Red, I believe his name was, spiky black hair... red clothing... he wears a cap; why? Do you know him?"_

_Blue was already gone._

* * *

END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK

* * *

As he opened the door slowly, allowing himself in he saw machines, wires and that disturbing white tone that surrounded the once brightly lit boy he knew.

Blue approached the crisp white bed sheets that were crumpled into a mound, covering the breathing and comatose Red. His clenched fists shook and paled as the blood circulation slowed.

Sabrina brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she observed Blue's actions.

"Would you like me to leave you with him?"

Blue nodded, unable to speak with his throat been dry and sore.

Blue ran his fingers against the creases of the duvet, walking round to the other side of the bed. His fists re-clenched when his eyes met Red's face, scanning down unable to look at him properly, he observed Red's body. Red's body was connected to a machine Blue was sure was to make sure his heart was stable and a breathing mask covered Red's mouth though his breathing pattern returned to its regular routine.

He hated how fragile Red truly was; it reminded him Red was human, a delicate piece of life that could not stand up against everything and life on forever. It reminded him how much he cared for the reckless imbecile and how he loved the way he smiled, the way his voice rung like a melody in his ears, how his eyes were like windows to a better time, a better place – to what could be if Blue would only admit defeat.

Blue cracked; his hand over his mouth to muffle the distressed, sorrowful sounds coming from him – his eyes threatening to spill with tears.

"How did you get into this mess...?" muttered Blue, his thoughts taking flight into the open as he regained his composure and blinked back the tears as if they were nothing.

* * *

Grabbing a nearby chair, the brunette trainer rested his elbows on the mattress and occasionally rested his head in his hands, burying his face away in shame.

Dropped one arm to rest against Red's limp hand, he grazed their fingertips but for hesitating; he took Red's hand in his, the way Red had done at the Vermillion docks. He slowly brought the clammy, cold hand to his lips but changed his mind and rested it against his forehead as he closed his eyes to take in Red's scent that filled the sickly room, praying to any deity that may exist to ensure Red's life.

"Please... Be okay, Red, please..."

Blue's heart ached; his heart rate increased and thoughts raced round his head – what were his thoughts? How did he feel for Red?

He felt anger; He hated Red's strength, he hated him for killing his Rattata.

He hated him for been so imperfect, yet so attractive and kind.

He felt envious; He envied Red's bond with his Pokémon, he envied the fact his Pokémon are all alive, he envied the bond Red had with his grandfather, Professor Oak.

He envied Red for the true popularity he had, how he did not have to charm or manipulate people into liking him.

He felt... Blue felt...

_Love?_

Blue growled to himself, snapping back into reality; He did not love Red, it was just admiration for an old childhood friend and strong rival.

"Yeah... that's what it is."

* * *

Blue sighed, and walked out onto a nearby route to train and he took out all six of his pokéballs, letting out all of his team into the open air.

Prior of letting them all out, a purple-pink blob hit Blue in the face.

"Hey! Ditto, get off that trainer!"

The blob slid of the brown-haired trainer's face and pounced onto the hat of a girl, Blue blushed faintly at the sight.

The girl had long brown hair down to her waist, the top of her head covered by a white hat with a red pokéball symbol similar to the one on Red's hat but vice versa colours. Her sleeveless shirt was blue with a black collar and circle below the neckline. His eyes scanned further down to notice the red pleated skirt that match the colour of the pokéball symbol on her hat and her long, blue legwarmer-like socks and red-white shoes.

The girl fiddled with her black wristband on her right hand, smiling at Blue as they made eye contact.

"See something you like, Hm?"

Blue was taken aback but regained composure quickly, coughing as his blush went down.

"You're cute but..."

"You're taken? It wouldn't happen to be the cute raven-haired boy, would it?"

Blue stammered for an answer; this girl knew Red?

The brunette laughed, waving him off.

"Its fine, its fine – I was just joking. I am Green. Leaf Green."

"I'm Blue... Blue Oak."

She grinned and shook his hand as they both extended them out.

"Nice to meet cha'! – I was just training my team, want to join?"

Blue hesitated, withdrawing his hand but then scoffed. A smirk stretched on his face.

"I'm not one to turn down a challenge, but I won't go easy on you – pretty face or not."

Leaf giggled and winked at him; "I wouldn't want you to!"

* * *

Laughing for the first time in a long time, Blue laid on the grass side-by-side with Leaf after their training regime and practice battles.

"You're a pretty good trainer!"

"I try my best, though your Jolteon kicked my Wartortle's ass!"

Blue chuckled, before ceasing the noise and exhaling loudly.

The two laid there in silence before Leaf broke the tension.

"So... are you and that Red boy close?"

Blue sat upright and plucked a strand of grass, tying it in knots.

"I guess... its a little complex and long."

Leaf pulled him into a one-armed hug, and then let him go grinning.

"If you have problems, don't run away from them... besides, we're friends now right? So you can tell me, I have all day."

Blue smiled, blushing pink out of affection; he had known this girl for a few hours but he felt he could tell her anything – like how he used to be able to with Red.

Therefore, he opened up.

"I've known Red since we were kids, he had fallen over and everyone was laughing at him... but he just stopped up, and stuck out his tongue and ran off – he was always brave and reckless like that but I saw the kind of person he was, so I went after him and we kind of became friends from there. We did everything together until..."

Inhaling, Blue stopped until Leaf urged him on.

"Until, my grandfather became famous – I was about seven – for his research on Pokémon and the Pokédex he invented. I became egotistical, and Red did not like that. We would fight all the time, and soon we became distant and enveloped in the world of Pokémon, waiting for the day we could both be trainers."

He laughed, his voice cracking as tears swelled up in the corner of his eyes again.

"We would argue who would be the best trainer, who would beat the Elite Four and be the Champion... we even argued over a girl who said she would marry the strongest trainer when we were older. Neither of us liked her that way, but we just wanted to fight with each other but on my tenth birthday, he gave me this."

He rummaged in his shirt and pulled out a pendant; it was yin-yang themed with a clashing green and yellow colour. Leaf whistled, drawing it out.

"Is that real yellow heliodor and emeralds?"

Blue just continued to stare at it with a smile on his face.

"He told me he still liked me... I remember his face been flushed crimson, and how nervous he was – I told him I didn't care, but I still kept it."

"You still cared for him." Leaf concluded, Blue nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, just not in the way Red did – at first – I didn't understand the way he felt at first but he made it rather clear a few weeks ago in Vermillion."

"He talks about it in his sleep..."

Blue looked up at Leaf, surprised.

"I'm Sabrina's apprentice, so I visit him regularly to change his sheets and check his condition so Nurse Joy and Chansey don't have to be there all the time but he thinks you hate him for that. He keeps begging for your forgiveness, something about a kiss and a Rattata?"

Blue froze up: Rattata...

"Blue, are you okay? You look pale and tired."

Blue just slowly got up and laughed nervously.

"I'm just tired... I'll see you tomorrow, okay Leaf?"

Blue ran off, and tried to sleep the entire night – he failed.

* * *

Blue came out of the gym with Leaf, grinning as he let the light catch the badge – he finally had the Marsh Badge!

"Well done, Blue – that was an awesome win!"

Blue just winked at Leaf and grinned.

"What do you expect of me?"

Leaf laughed and walked with him to one of the exits of Saffron.

"You'll keep in contact, right Blue? Don't forget me."

"I won't. Look after Red until he wakes up, and don't tell him I was there – promise?"

Leaf nodded, hugging him and as they parted, she grabbed Blue's hand and kissed his cheek.

"I'm not trying to steal Red's man, but I just had to."

Blue blushed and scoffed; looking away from Leafs laughing face.

"Yeah, yeah shut up."

"Remember though, Blue, don't run away from your problems – you have legs but don't use them to run. Use them to move forward, and stand against what scares you."

"Nothing scares me-" Blue started but Leaf glared at him.

"You aren't invincible Blue, I saw you cry yesterday just thinking about Red so you can't say you aren't scared for him or scared of the fact that you love him and can't commit to that feeling; He won't wait forever."

Blue just stared but waved at Leaf as he walked away, leaving that sensitive side of him behind in the back of his mind. Only Leaf and Red had ever seen this side of him – he planned never to show anyone ever again.

Blue was going to be Champion, and nobody could stop him.

Not any gym leader, not any Elite 4, not any Champion or trainer.

Not Leaf Green, who was incredibly powerful herself.

Not his sister or his grandfather.

Not the terrain he must face, and the obstacles he must destroy.

Not even Red of Pallet Town would stop him.

That he was sure of.

"I'm waiting for you, Red, I'll wait for you to come after me and then... I'll beat you, once and for all."

* * *

Red snapped awake, startling Nurse Joy and her Chansey. They voiced relief for his condition but he did not focus on them and tuned them out as background noise.

He kept eye contact with the woman in front of him, Sabrina – he was sure he saw her face before he passed out, after the battle at Silph Co.

"Good morning, Red of Pallet Town. I'm having breakfast made for you now, and your clothes have been washed – I expect to see you in the gym."

"The... gym?"

"I'm Sabrina, the leader of Saffron City Gym. You want the Marsh Badge, right?"

Red stared at her, his eyes flaring with determination.

"I'll see you soon, then!"

Sabrina left, grinning and shut the door behind Nurse Joy and Chansey.

Red stared at his right hand, and flexed the fingers.

"It feels warm... like someone was holding my hand?"

* * *

The end of the filler chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and please review!

Next time: Red challenges Sabrina!


	7. Painting in Leaf Green

Back to the main story now, I'm on a roll!

We're on chapter seven, and I have managed to do more than I ever could on Shades of Red and we have Red's original team! Hope you enjoy and please, please review or suggest to communities like Protanopia or Palletshippers Paradise, please!

* * *

Red dressed himself, pulling his cap round from the back so the flap faced forwards shielding his face from intense light.

Sitting outside on the porch of Sabrina's home with his Pokémon hours before the battle with delicious home-made food and fresh, clean clothes made him feel rejuvenated after whatever had happened to knock him out cold; he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Stroking his Pikachu, he rolled a purple pokéball (with two lighter purple semi-sphere shapes attacked onto the right and left sides of it, with a small 'M' carved on and painted pink) between his fingers known as a Master Ball. Sabrina had told him how he had defeated Giovanni, the Rocket Boss, and that this prototype pokéball was one of a kind and rare hence why it was given as a gift.

Placing it back in his bag, giving it a compartment of its own so he wouldn't use it recklessly like any other pokéball, he got up with pokéballs on his belt and his Pikachu on his arm and set off to the gym to grab his fifth badge.

Yes, his fifth even though Sabrina was the sixth gym leader in all of Kanto – he thought he might as well grab this one while he was here. Besides, the fifth gym leader was in a town close to Cinnabar Island, home of the second to last gym leader.

Red's hand pushed against the door of the gym and he opened it, determined to win.

* * *

"Sabrina!"

Pikachu slept on Red's back, having been promised a rest if he cleared the gym trainers.

Red reached for his Charizard's pokéball, grinning.

"I had a vision of your arrival, which is how I knew of your challenge and your comatose state in the Silph Co. building."

Red blinked, but shrugged it off.

"Explain to me, how you knew?"

"I've had physic powers since I was a child... I first learned to bend spoons with my mind but now I can connect with my Pokémon with the use of verbal speech."

"I see... Cool!"

Sabrina laughed, it filling the middle box room: "I dislike fighting, but since you have come from so far and seem so eager... I will show you my powers!"

A pokéball floated from her belt and an Abra came out from the ray of ruby light. Red stared in amazement before sending out his Charizard.

"Charizard, use Dragon Rage!"

The blue-red fireballs surrounded the tiny physic type, and before it could teleport away clashing into it. The Abra shuddered, but stood strong using Reflect to create a box of mirrors around itself while it recovered.

"Charizard, melt the Reflect mirrors with Ember then use Slash!"

Charizard heated the mirrors until they melted and faded when it became apparent the weakened Abra couldn't keep them up much longer. It took the Slash attack but as it attempted to fight back, it fell – Abra passed out.

Charizard huffed, breathing out smoke as it stood strong ready for a second opponent.

"Kadabra, go!"

Sabrina's Kadabra – her second Pokémon – stroked a finger along its spoon whilst keeping eye contact with Charizard.

"Use ember!"

Sabrina's eyes narrowed and Kadabra used Reflect to deflect most of the ember's damaging effects so the physic-type just shook it off but using Recover.

"Dragon rage, Charizard!"

The dragon-type move hit, but was all in vain, as Kadabra recovered once again before hitting the irritated fire dragon with a Physic attack, flinging the heavy Pokémon into a wall.

"Charizard, are you okay?"

The fire-type stood up, and growled at Kadabra who smirked.

"Charizard, use Ember then Slash!"

Charizard breathed a spiral of flames but instead of aiming at Kadabra, aimed at its own claw before charging at Kadabra taking it by surprise, hitting it with the fire vortex covered Slash attack, knocking it out instantly.

"Charizard, you're tired... you did well – Let Lapras take it from here."

Red swapped Charizard for Lapras, and Sabrina swapped Kadabra for her strongest Pokémon, Alakazam.

Alakazam was faster than the Ice-type, flinging it up into the air with a Physic and watching it crash into the ground. Lapras retaliated with Ice Beam but it had little effect.

"Use Physic, Lapras!"

The physic move did nothing to the Alakazam, which shot Lapras back into the wall that had Charizard's imprint on it.

"Lapras!" Red ran over and comforted the ice-type before muttering and healing the Pokémon with a Hyper Potion.

The Lapras moved forward slowly, as Sabrina gave Alakazam a capsule that the Pokémon swallowed to higher its defense; It shot an Ice Beam so to freeze the Pokémon so Alakazam panicked as it was unprepared for the Body Slam that followed, causing it to faint and for Red to win the battle.

"We did it! We won, Lapras!" Red exclaimed while hugging the Lapras' long neck.

"I'm actually shocked... I didn't predict that... But a loss is a loss." Sabrina was breathless.

She continued, smiling as Red approached her. "I admit I didn't work hard enough to win. You earned this, Red."

Returning their Pokémon to their pokéballs, Sabrina and Red shook hands before he received the Marsh Badge and the TM Psywave, which he taught to Lapras in place of Horn Drill.

* * *

After Red trained his Pokémon up to the 50's on Route 13 and onwards, he headed towards Fuchsia City, where he heard there was a competition to get to the hidden room in the Safari Zone where lots of rare Pokémon could be caught.

He healed his Pokémon upon early arrival, exhausted after the immense battles.

"I hate peddling..." Red whined, leaning over to a shelf where a leaflet for the Safari Zone stood tall like a guard at its post. His eyes widened, and his pout expanded into a grin.

The leaflet claimed that if you got to the hidden room, you got the HM Surf and there was the HM Strength up for exchange if you could find the Warden's golden teeth that were lost. Red got giddy with excitement, he just needed three HMs and he would have collected them all: Fly, Surf and Strength were the only ones he didn't have.

Red rushed, picking up his Pikachu and bag, to the Safari Zone with the amount of cash needed.

Red threw a Safari Ball at an Exeggcute and grinned when it was caught; this was the final Pokémon he could catch, as he was one Safari Ball away from ending his game. He continued rustling around the area and tripped over something.

"Ow... that hurt."

His eyes blinked as he saw something shiny under his foot, his hand scooped it up and retrieved what appeared to be fake teeth – gold ones at that.

"The Warden's Teeth!" He jumped for joy, forgetting about the forming bruise underneath his trousers. "I can get HM Strength now!"

Red ran around, feeding the wild Pokémon around here whilst he searched for the hidden room deep in the Safari Zone.

Covered in leaves, dirt and bruises – Red stumbled into the hidden room, face first.

"I've... m-made it!" he exclaimed, raising a fist into the air before unclenching the fist.

"Ah! Finally!"

A man, middle-aged with an explorer's hat and a pouched waistcoat over a green shirt, stepped forward and grabbed Red's hand before our trainer let it go limp, pulling him onto his legs and setting him down on a seat.

"You're the first person to reach the Secret House! I was getting worried no-one would win our campaign prize!" He laughed full-heartedly causing Red to join in; they do say laughter is contagious after all.

The man handed him HM03, Surf, congratulating the boy on his win. He waved good-bye after finishing a cup of coffee with the Safari staff member and headed towards the exit so he could give the Warden his teeth.

* * *

It took him a while to find out where the Warden lived, as a lot of the staff members tried to convince Red to give them the teeth because apparently the Warden talked too much that him losing his teeth was a relief.

Red just laughed it off, and circled Fuchsia until he found the Warden's name on his post-box and knocked on the door, letting himself in. The elderly man's house was full with books, paperwork, old Pokémon merchandise the Safari Zone first started selling in their gift shop and a shelf with a HM and a few other items.

Red tapped on the elderly man's shoulder, grinning at the excited look on the Warden's face.

"Here you go, sir – your teeth!"

The man turned around to fix in his teeth without grossing the boy out before turning back round; "Thanks, kid! No-one could understand a word I was saying so I couldn't work, I bet they all miss me back at the Zone."

Red chuckled.

"Oh yes, they did all right!"

"Yes well, let me give you something for your troubles; it's Strength!"

* * *

Red soon after decided to train on the Cycling Road, and found the house of a young woman who was hiding out in a house so in exchange for knowing her secret location and forcing him to swear to secrecy, he obtained and taught Fly to Charizard.

"Charizard, fly me to Fuchsia City so we can defeat Koga!"

* * *

"Fwahahaha!"

Koga's laughter made Red scrunch up his face in annoyance; It was so loud and obnoxious.

"A mere child like you dares to challenge me?"

Red glared, and shouted back in retaliation: "I'm not some mere child, Koga, I'm Red of Pallet Town and I'm going to become the Pokémon Champion!"

Koga's laughter ceased, his face steeling into a serious expression.

"Very well, I shall show you the true terror as a ninja master! You shall feel the despair of poison and sleep techniques!"

Red sent out his Lapras, which was faster by far than Koga's Venonats– it was over in three beams of ice, taking out all three of the bug Pokémon with ease.

"Ugh... You are quite strong, for a child."

"I've been training for this, and I've already defeated Sabrina so this will be easy! Pikachu, use Thunder on Koga's Venomoth!"

Koga lost, it was no challenge for Red at all.

Koga's jaw dropped to the floor in shock; He lost so easily!

Red held out his hands in a 'gimme' action, as he awaited the TM Gift, Toxic, and the Soul Badge. Koga sighed, and pushed them into his hands.

"You have won... I shall be right to understand you are going to Cinnabar Island next?"

Red nodded, attaching the badge on the inside of his jacket – he kept reminding himself to get a case for them.

"Well, I hope you have strong water Pokémon; Blaine is a powerful master of the fire type. Good luck, Red."

* * *

Red sat on his Lapras' back as his Lapras swum across the Sea Route 19 towards Cinnabar Island, having to go through Seafoam Islands that had a cold, icy feel to them that made Red shudder at how ominous it seemed. Not as creepy as Cerulean Cave, mind you.

Having to enter the cave just to get to Cinnabar was a pain, but there was lots of cute, rare and interesting Pokémon between the common Zubat and Golbat.

"Come on, Snorlax!" Red encouraged the large Pokémon as it pushed boulders along the ground floor into holes, as the floor below this one had a fast current in the water that evaded the entrance.

After finishing the boulder puzzle, a squawk could be heard echoing from the lower floor. Red, pried by curiosity, returned his Snorlax and jumped down the hall releasing Lapras at last minute so he landed on the ice-type's back as they hit the water.

The current had been slowed by the rocks blockading the source and Red could see a mist settling on another small platform – carefully, Red sailed Lapras towards that platform.

Stepping upon the platform, the mist clouded Red's vision but as he followed the sound of a bird, he found two large, blue talons in front of him and further up them talons was a majestic blue bird, it squawked at him.

"Gyaoo!" flapping its wings it brought a freezing cold chill, before flying off away from Red, leading him out of the Seafoam Islands.

Finally, after taking out another lot of trainers and another half hour swim around in the ocean, they made it to Cinnabar Island.

* * *

Wandering around, he found the laboratory for fossil resurrection – Red remembered the Old Amber and the Dome Fossil's in his bag, squashed against other items. Taking them and walking in, he talked with a few of the scientists there (he also found an interesting picture of Mr. Fuji, who happened to be the founder of the lab!) and came out with two Pokémon; Kabuto and Aerodactyl.

Putting them in the BOX System and sending them to the Professor, only to find out the Gym was locked, Red decided to go train up in the Pokémon Mansion nearby.

* * *

The mansion was an old wreckage of rubble.

The only things that remained were items that were left behind after the fire, the occasional chair or bed and weird statues.

Red ran his fingers over the statues, triggering a switch in the eye of the statue (which was shaped as a strange Pokémon, but it could not be described as anything other than unearthly) that opened a nearby door up but closed another.

"Huh, so these statues have switches?" A mischievous grin appears on Red's face. "This is going to be so fun!"

Red ran up the stairs and into another room after messing with a door.

"Hm?" He stopped at a table, his Pikachu nudging a diary entry in a book with its foot. "What's this?"

"_July 5__th__, Guyana, South America: A new Pokémon was discovered deep in the jungle."_

It was brief but had no real detail about this new Pokémon, this got Red curious.

"I wonder if there are anymore... let's look, Pikachu!"

He found another diary entry on the same floor, south of the one he was just in.

"_July 10__th__: We christened the newly discovered Pokémon, Mew."_

Another brief entry, but at least this time it gave a name for the Pokémon – Red wonder if it even existed now. On the floor above, a third entry was found.

"_February 6__th__: Mew gave birth. We named the newborn Mewtwo."_

"Mewtwo? That is a strange name... I guess I can't judge."

After that entry, Red managed to find the last one in the basement with a few TMs, it read...

"_September 1__st__: Mewtwo is far too powerful. We have failed to curb its vicious tendencies..."_

The rest had been ripped out underneath another entry, as if someone had clawed through it angrily.

Thinking over the Mewtwo and Mew thing, Red found a key with a note attached to it telling him that he had found the key to the gym, and the leader cannot wait to face the challenger.

* * *

Red ploughed through the quiz set up in the gym, having learnt so much on his journey around Kanto.

"This is it!" he grinned, and picked Pikachu up running into the final room where Blaine, Cinnabar's gym leader awaited him.

A happy chorus of laughter erupted from the older man, as he adjusted his glasses and stroked his moustache.

"I am Blaine! I am the leader of Cinnabar gym, as you must know... and who are you, young man?"

Red smiled; this was the politest gym leader he had met so far, he could get used to the respect from this man.

"Red and I'm here for your gym badge!"

Blaine chuckled and nodded, reaching for a pokéball in his lab coat pockets.

"Well, Red, my fiery Pokémon will incinerate all challengers; I only hope you have a burn heal, my boy!"

Red grinned and sent out his Blastoise, patting its shell fondly.

"I hope you have a few matches, because we're going to douse you out!"

Blaine sent out Ninetales, similar to Blue's but stronger, much more graceful. It jumped towards Blastoise and its eyes glowed purple, with flickers of yellow – Blastoise's eyes followed the pattern, and caused confusion.

Blastoise hurt itself repeatedly while been bombarded with fire attacks that proved ineffective. Up until the last minute, Blastoise got itself together and blasted Ninetales with a Hydro Pump attack and snapped out of confusion.

Sending out his Pokémon, Rapidash, and Blaine ordered it to stomp on the water turtle. The hoof of the fire stallion hit Blastoise's face, knocking it onto its legs but was greeted with a bite attack, keeping the stallion in place as it thrashed and missed multiple attacks, was then taken down with another Hydro Pump.

Due to the health decrease on Blastoise, Red switched out for Lapras who watched cautiously at the graceful, elegant Arcanine that Blaine presented. The Arcanine was faster.

Lapras was hit with a Flamethrower attack, burning the side of the Pokémon's face.

"Lapras, use Surf!"

The intelligent, rare Pokémon whipped up a tsunami wave somehow and crushed the Arcanine under the water's pressure before making sure it stayed down with a Physic attack. Red won his seventh gym badge.

"I have burnt out! Hah!"

Red and Blaine shook hands, smiling and exchanged the TM and Volcano Badge

Red turned to leave but stopped, his eyes locking on Blaine.

"Excuse me, Blaine?"

"Hm? Yes, Red, my boy?"

"...What is...? Mew and Mewtwo?"

Blaine stopped dead still, as if he was frozen in ice for centuries. The elderly man guided Red outside to the Shore of Cinnabar Island, and sighed.

* * *

Red sat on the sands of Cinnabar, and waited for Blaine to begin – his eyes full of curiosity.

"Mew is known as the New Species Pokémon, or the DNA Pokémon... some people believe it isn't even real or a mirage, hence the nicknames 'Phantom' or 'Mirage' Pokémon. Others believe it is the ancestor of all Pokémon we know today. I was a scientist under Dr. Fuji at the time, when we was tracking it down."

"Dr. Fuji? As in Lavender Town's Fuji?"

"Is that where he went? Well, then yes... I guess I should tell you the whole story... Fuji is the founder of the lab here, and was a close friend of mine – he was studying genetics in both Pokémon and people, fuelled by despair after his little girl Amber had died."

"Genetics? Amber?" Red questioned before his eyes widened, his voice now a small whisper. "He tried to create a clone?"

Blaine nodded, a look of regret in his eyes reflecting in his glasses.

"Yes, he did. His research, our research, was funded by a man known as Giovanni." Blaine looked at Red for a reaction; Anger, disgust. "I know, Giovanni... The man who runs the criminal organization, Team Rocket, but he was the only one who would fund our research and in exchange for that funding, an island and the travel means, he wanted us to create a copy of Mew."

"We agreed, we had no choice. We travelled to Guyana and found Mew after so long... We took its newborn baby and used it as DNA for the new clone. The clone was born as Mewtwo, and the only experiment to survive after trying to clone the Kanto Starters and Fuji's daughter – all of them died shortly after they were made apart from Mewtwo."

Red hugged his knees and stared into this distance before making an effort to reply: "Mewtwo then got too powerful to control and disappeared along with Mr. Fuji."

"Dr. Fuji, or Mr. Fuji, burnt down one of our many facilities – Pokémon Mansion been his home before he left Cinnabar, I never had the heart to remove the remains though and it has become the home to many Pokémon here – and most of his research with it and must have left for Pokémon Tower. I never heard from him since he fled New Island."

Red stared a little longer into the distance before standing up, his eyes fixated on Blaine.

"I'm going to defeat the last gym leader, find Giovanni and make him regret the day he created Team Rocket! I'll find Mewtwo, as well!"xx

* * *

As Red flew to Pallet Town to spend the time at home before the final gym leader, Blaine watched him.

"If only you knew, Red, what awaits you in Viridian City..."

* * *

I hope you liked this chapter! I used an uncut storyline to the Mewtwo movie for the whole Fuji-Giovanni-Mewtwo thing.

Review, please!


	8. Painting in Sky Blue

Number eight; this is the last of the gyms and the final chapter involving Giovanni.

We see Giovanni piece Red together, we see his defeat from his pedestal of so-called greatness, we see Victory Road, and we see Red. We see the canvas he has created, the landscape he painted out for himself.

We are close to the end.

* * *

Red sat on the stairs on his home, staring up to the stars. Thoughts and fragments of time rushed through his head, as he recalled the entirety of his journey.

The trainers he had met.

The achievements he had accomplished.

The friend he made.

What he gained, and lost.

His rights and his wrongs.

He clenched his fists, a small yellow palm touching his right one in comfort and concern.

"I'll defeat Giovanni, Pikachu... I'll protect every Pokémon I can. I'll defeat Team Rocket for good."

Pikachu nodded, and jumped into Red's lap and slept there in a ball. Red carried his companion to his bedroom inside the house and stayed there attempting to fall into slumber until the dawn came.

* * *

Walking through Route 1 and into Viridian City made nostalgia seem like an understatement. Pikachu grinned, and pointed out places to Red with its tail wagging behind it humorously. Red just laughed at the electric mouse before his face dropped. The Viridian City Gym.

He saw the old man who resided out there last time, but a smile lit up the elder's face.

"Viridian's gym leader returned! It's a miracle, my boy."

Red walked into the gym, and noticed the faded name plate on the statue which the figure that was once there now remained cracked and broken (the gym leader's face once stood proud in stone but now was crumbled and Red couldn't make him or her out).

Cutting down the trainers, caught in a complex labyrinth that seemed familiar – the patterns of the tiles, how they would hurtle and spin him in different directions reminded him of the Team Rocket base in Celadon.

* * *

He stepped into the main chamber of the gym where a man with receding dark brunette hair, and a smart white shirt to match with the black blazer, slacks and shoes.

"Giovanni..." – "Red."

"What are you doing here? Where is the gym leader?" Red scowled with his voice full of rage.

Laughter echoed throughout the chamber, throughout the gym.

"This is my hideout! I had planned to resurrect Team Rocket here... but you have caught me again, though I guess I would expect it seeing as you are a trainer. So be it."

"This time, as both Gym Leader and Team Rocket's Boss, I won't hold back! Once more, you shall face me, the greatest trainer in Kanto's Gym league!"

"Dugtrio!" – "Blastoise!"

The Dugtrio dug underground immediately, confusing poor Blastoise as the ground-type encircled it waiting to pop up in surprise in a tackle-like attack.

"Blastoise, pump Hydro Pump into the holes!"

Running to the nearest hole, Blastoise aimed its cannons into the hole and flushed out the ground-type with geysers but the ground-type came flying and hit Blastoise, but did little damage.

This repeated multiple times until Blastoise hit Dugtrio directly with a Hydro Pump, the glistening water soaking the Pokémon and knocked it out completely.

Rhydon was defeat with ease, as Venusaur was sent out and drained its health with a quick Mega Drain attack.

Snorlax stood tall and grasped the hands of the Nidoqueen, wrestling in a battle of strength and dominance as soon as they were both released. Nidoqueen's tail smashed into Snorlax's feet in a two waves but Snorlax used Strength to push the Nidoqueen back, before charging up a Hyper Beam.

It was an easy win over all as was the next battle between Giovanni's Nidoking and Red's Lapras. The battle was won as it all ended in one move from Lapras, a Surf attack, after been hit hard with a Double Kick attack.

A white-cream feline Pokémon was next and faced off against the electric mouse, their eyes glaring angrily at each other, Persian screeched madly at the rodent causing it to shrink back before puffing out its chest in pride.

"Let's make this quick, use Thunder!"

Paralyzing the Persian and damaging it critically enraged the normal-type who managed to pounce, pinning the electric-type and scratched at the face and body of Pikachu. Holding strong, Pikachu bashed its head into the Persian before slamming its entire body weight down onto the feline's stomach ultimately winding it and causing it to faint.

Panting, Pikachu waddled back to Red who healed it and let it rest on his shoulder.

Red won his last gym battle, and defeated the leader of not only Viridian City but, of Team Rocket too.

Giovanni ran his hand through his hair (despite a lack of it) and chuckled.

"Hah... that was truly an intense fight! You have won, and as proof, take this... The Earth Badge – you have earned it, Red."

Red opened his palm, trying not to clench it and punch that smug grin off of Giovanni's face as he handed him the Earth Badge. As Red folded his fingers over it and around the shiny green-silver badge, Giovanni cupped the fist with care.

"This badge is evidence of your mastery as a Pokémon trainer... with it, you can enter the Pokémon league just west of here. This is my gift, Red, for your entry... the TM Fissure... I used this when I first ran the gym here not too long ago..."

Giovanni's face softened before he let go of Red's hand and turned his back on the trainer.

"What about Team Rocket, Giovanni? Answer my questions! Where is the Pokémon you had Fuji create? Where is the Pokémon, Mewtwo?"

Giovanni chuckled, though it rang of sorrow and shame.

"That Pokémon ran away long ago, but I have heard rumors of its whereabouts in Cerulean Cave... but you aren't strong enough to face it."

Red gritted his teeth, before changing the subject; "Okay then, what about Team Rocket? What will you do with them?"

"Having lost, I cannot face my underlings! Team Rocket is finished forever! I will dedicate my life to the study of Pokémon." Giovanni declared as he head for an exit he created in the chamber of the gym. "Let us meet again someday, Red and farewell!"

The warmth pulsating from his hand where Giovanni had clutched it, a fatherly touch, reached out to him with his voice.

"Giovanni, what did you seen in me!" he yelled, causing the mob boss to stop temporarily.

"...My son, Silver."

And with that, Giovanni was gone.

* * *

Walking down the same route with the same red-yellow brick tiles with the same Pikachu made everything seem so... nostalgic in a sickening way.

"Red!" a voice echoed, Red was sure it was a flashback or a dream of some kind until a hand rested on his shoulder making him look up.

"What a surprise to see you here, so you're going to the Pokémon League?" Blue smirked, his hazel brown eyes dragging Red into the same pool of drowning emotions he was used to.

Red nodded, brushing Blue's hand off his shoulder. He earned a scowl in response.

"You collected all the badges too? That's pretty cool!"

Red blinked – was that a compliment?

Blue laughed, waving it off before he reached for a pokéball from his belt.

"Don't get used to it, and as a favour, I'll whip you up a warm-up for the Pokémon League!"

Red's expression didn't change from its emotionless state, and he grabbed for his Blastoise's pokéball – the common powerhouse to his team – and took out Blue's Sandslash in one hit with Hydro Pump.

"Not bad, Red, lucky choice."

"If you say so." The 'hero' retorted.

The second round was just as quick, with Charizard blasting spheres of fire at Blue's Exeggcute. Fire and Grass just didn't go well together.

Lapras was next, and Ninetales though fast did little damage to the intellectual Pokémon with its fire attacks. Lapras used Physic to throw the elegant fox Pokémon into a nearby cliff-wall and finished it off with Surf. Blue looked a little on edge.

Venusaur took out the rival's Cloyster with a Razor Whip and Mega Drain, the battle flying by so fast to Blue's amazement. Red's eyes just glistened in the midst of the battle as his face hardened, void of all emotion.

Hyper Beam took out Blue's Kadabra, soon after Cloyster's defeat, and Snorlax was replaced quickly by Pikachu in the battlefield.

Two electric types, two starters, two rivals of rival trainers circled one another with sparks flying like flocks of Pidgeys.

Pikachu moved first, and slammed into Jolteon's side pushing them both into the pavement. The mouse Pokémon scrambled back as metal pins that was once the Jolteon's fur launched towards it; only two barrages successful.

Pikachu charged up the energy in its cheeks with the air around it, and soon a grey cloud spiralled above where the battle was taking place. Lightning struck at the ground and thunder rumbled above them, like angry gods. Red was sure a God of Lightning came down with a mighty bolt and struck the other electric type in a form of judgement as Pikachu used Thunder.

Blue lost, again.

* * *

"What...?" Blue murmured in disbelief.

Red looked up, not celebrating his victory. Rain started to paint the skies grey with its sorrowful clouds.

Red's own eyes clouded up a little, his vision blurring – he wasn't sure why.

"I was just careless... I'm loosened up anyway; I'm ready for the league but you? You need more practice, Red but hey! You know that, right Red? Red?"

Red looked at Blue once he had stopped talking; his face, paler than the moon, was streaming a waterfall of tears from gorgeous, brown-red eyes.

"Red, why are you crying? You won!"

The brown-haired trainer wasn't sure what to do as he approached the fragile being that was beginning to crumble under the weight of its own existence so he slowly wrapped his arms around the boy and let Red cry into his shoulder, into him.

"Red... don't cry..."

"I can't s-stop... for some r-reason, B-Blue..."

"Why are you upset, then?" this was getting awkward for Blue.

"You."

Blue's eyes widened. He was almost angry but kept his calm.

"Me?" his teeth grind-ed.

"My chest hurts when I'm near you; I fucking love you and I've put you through so much shit but you've given me just as much yet I still fall head over heels for your same stupid hazel eyes, and tall slim body and... a-and..."

Red's trembling lips, silenced from his screaming and whimpering, was warmed by Blue's own lips (that were for once not as cold as the rest of him). Red hit at Blue's chest, growling faintly before he slowly gave up and returned the kiss whole-hardheartedly. His crying slowly began to cease. Rain trickled down their face mingling with Red's tears and their hair stuck onto their wet skin, so the warmth they exchanged brought them closer.

"R-Red..." Blue groaned as Red broke away for air, and pushed Blue into a nearby cliff-face attacking his neck with a barrage of kisses and bites, each one ripping into his flesh and marking him. "It's r-raining and we can't do this..."

"I want this... don't you?" Red pulled back from the red soreness that was once Blue's neck and used his teeth to pull off his right glove, slipping the hand up the navy blue turtleneck shirt to roam Blue's chest. Red traced every inch of Blue's body; from the crooks in his neck, the dents in his collarbone, the faint appearance of muscular toning to the dips in his hip-bones.

The glove dropped silently to the ground, only to be coated in mud and rainwater.

Blue pushed Red away, blushing heavily.

"No... Not here, not now... I... I have to defeat you... I have to be the champion first, Red... I'm outta here... bye." Blue rushed out of sight, away from the comforting, warm touch he suddenly craved.

Red stood silent, just picked up his glove, wiped away the remains of the tears and smiled faintly to himself before heading towards the Pokémon League. Pikachu, who was confused and a little jealous of the closeness, stayed at Red's feet. The two journeyed the final stretch to the nearby building.

* * *

Victory Road lay out ahead in front of him; Red breathed in and stared into the inky black abyss that was the cave entrance.

He stepped through, and began the final leg of his journey. He was so close...

That he could taste it. Smell it. Feel it. Reach it.

See it.

* * *

Right, I know this was a short chapter but we're nearing the end but don't be sad because we haven't even gotten through to Mt. Silver, the PWT or the Sevii Islands which I may add in.

If you have any suggestions, please tell me and review if you can!


	9. Painting in Indigo

This time, we paint in Indigo!

So far, Red has conquered Team Rocket, All the gym leaders and even his feelings for Blue, which he now knows, aren't one-sided but now the biggest challenge is set aside for him: Can he defeat the Elite Four and be Champion?

Only one way to find out, isn't there? So what you doing reading this? Go on, read the fan-fiction and do not forget to leave a review or suggest it to Originalshippers everywhere!

* * *

Entering the league's front door, Red found himself in the rocky cavern known as Victory Road.

Inspecting the area around him, he noticed heavy boulders that needed a Pokémon like his Snorlax to push them around much like on Seafoam Island (the cavern with the beautiful, strange bird). He also took note of the eye-shaped switches and built-in barriers that littered the first floor of the cave and possibly the rest of them. Deriving a conclusion, he managed to figure out the trickery of Victory Road.

Sending out his Snorlax, and using the ability Strength, they both manoeuvred the boulders onto the switches so that the barriers would slide down out of view.

The darkness surrounded Red on many floors, but a faint flicker from the second floor gave light – like a fire torch or his Charizard's tail – which became intensely bright at some points.

Climbing up a set of ladders, towards the flickers of bright light, Red set eyes on a magnificent bird that appeared on wings of fire. Its eyes narrowed fiercely at the trainer but it flew off much like the bird with wings that brought blizzards on Seafoam Islands. This time though, a girl with long brunette hair, white hat with a red pokéball symbol, was seated on the bird Pokémon's back. Blinking, slightly confused, he shrugged it off and continued around the maze that was Victory Road.

Statues aligned, glorifying the name of the Pokémon League.

The building reached the skies, and had a godly structure with a looming shadow as if it was Death or God itself.

The scent of the air was sweet, like Vileplumes, and the skies were getting dark but stayed a beautiful indigo blue hue.

Breathing in the air, and keeping his fists to his sides, Red stormed the frightening yet impressive building to challenge the Elite 4 and fulfil his dream. He entered, healed and stocked up with a heart bursting with excitement and determination.

He was going to win this.

"This is the moment I have been training for, so let's hope it pays off." Red muttered to himself, before stepping through the door after a young woman explained the concept of each room to him.

* * *

"Welcome to the Pokémon League!" echoed a friendly, feminine voice. The owner was a woman with bright red hair and glasses, making her ice-blue eyes pop out almost.

"I am Lorelei of the Elite 4! No one can best me when it comes to icy Pokémon; their freezing moves are just so powerful that only someone like me could master them alongside my team. Your Pokémon will be at my mercy..."

"Red... Red of Pallet Town."

Lorelei smiled, apologizing quietly before resuming her obviously rehearsed speech.

"Your Pokémon will be at my mercy when they are frozen solid! Are you ready, Red of Pallet Town?" She announced with such enthusiasm as she threw a pokéball into the air, sending out her Dewgong.

Pikachu pounced onto the tiled platform below Red's feet and grinned, its cheeks crackling with stored electricity.

"Of course I am. Pikachu, use Thunderbolt."

Paralyzing the seal Pokémon, Pikachu jumped and slammed its entire body weight into the stomach of the Pokémon knocking it out cold in the process.

Cloyster was next, but was destroyed in seconds by Pikachu's Thunder attack. It was no competition at all with the type advantages.

Pikachu's Thunder destroyed the remainders of Lorelei's team (except her Jynx, which was taken down with no effort needed by Red's Charizard).

"You're better than I thought." She laughed, returning her Lapras, and then placing a lock of hair behind her ear, she opened the doors behind her. "Go on ahead, you only got a taste of the Pokémon League – Bruno is your next opponent, he uses fighting types so I'd use something that can fly but that's just a tip."

Lorelei stepped aside as Red brushed past her with a grin on his face.

One out of five.

Red continued.

* * *

The room was surrounded with dirt and boulders, obviously imported from the cavern Victory Road, and some were crushed or damaged but others remained perfect in shape.

Speaking of 'in shape', Red encountered a man stood on the head of his Onix who jumped down in front of the trainer.

"I am Bruno of the Elite 4..." his pale muscles and long dark hair stood out more than his onyx eyes. He distracted Red only temporarily, as his booming voice brought Red back to Earth. "Through rigorous training, people and Pokémon can become stronger together. Do you understand this, Red?"

Red was about to question how the Elite knew his name, but then he remembered Lorelei probably let the rest of the trainers know before he arrived in this chamber. He just nodded in response.

"I've weight trained with my Pokémon, for example..."

Red nodded again, unsure as what to say to that until he noticed the Onix move closer to the ground. He reached for his pokéball.

"Red! We will grind you down with our superior power!"

The Onix rotated its body, like a drill, and charged at Red but was stopped dead in its tracks by Red's Blastoise.

"Blastoise, use Hydro Pump!"

The Onix was blasted with a fierce jet of cold water, soaking and defeating the rock-type.

The same repeated, with the use of Water Gun and Hydro Pump, to defeat the second Onix in Bruno's team and the fighting-types were brought down by Red's Charizard and their Fly attack.

It was an easy win for Red, and the second pair of doors opened; "My job here is done! Go and face the next challenge, Red!"

He didn't need to be told twice.

* * *

"I am Agatha of the Elite 4... You must be Red."

The elderly woman, Agatha, had aged well with wisdom embedded in her skin.

"Oak has taken a lot of interest in you, child - he tells me, we used to be... well, you know." She laughs to herself, bringing her cane back down to the ground. "That old duff was once tough and handsome, decades ago that is. Unfortunately, he just wants to fiddle with that Pokédex of his now, well I believe he is wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Pokémon are for fighting! Let me show you how a real trainer fights, Red!"

Sending out her Gengar straight away, Lapras was an easy choice; Red took down the shadow Pokémon in one Physic move.

Pikachu used Thunderbolt to paralyze and knock out the Golbat with ease, Agatha's team reducing to nothing but defeated foes.

Arbok, Haunter and Agatha's second Gengar were all taken out with a barrage of Surf, Physic and Blizzard attacks; freezing then shattering the ice and mind of the foe to the point of unconsciousness, occasionally sending them back in a tsunami of water.

Agatha huffed in defeat, obviously still having a faint child's heart when it comes to a loss.

"You win!" she retorted, waving her cane towards the door in gesture. "I see what that old duff sees in you now. I have nothing else to say, so run along now! Go on, get!"

Red laughed, sticking his tongue out mischievously before heading to the final Elite. Lance, the dragon master.

* * *

Spiked red hair like a mane.

Clothes that only a noble of a country should wear or anyone of great power.

Eyes like the earth, the ground, the dirt but hardened like iron or stone.

"Ah, I heard about you, Red!"

"Is that so?" Red grinned, petting his Pikachu.

"I lead the Elite 4; you can call me Lance the Dragon Tamer!" He exclaimed, brushing a hand through his hair chuckling. "You know, dragon-types are rather mythical Pokémon... Hard to catch, and hard to raise but their powers are superior in the Pokémon world to many."

Red could feel the aura of pride evaporating off Lance.

"They're virtually indestructible!" He laughed after shouting it to the heavens before taking out a pokéball seemingly from nowhere.

"Are you ready to lose, Red?" – "I was about to ask you the same thing, Lance."

Smirking, the dragon tamer stared deep into Red's eyes.

"Your Pokémon League challenge ends here with me, Red!"

Gyarados came out, with a beam already charged up in its mouth. Red's Lapras stared up, intimidated.

"Hyper Beam! Lapras, duck!"

As Lapras attempted to duck, the beam smashed into Lapras' back shell.

"Lapras!"

The Water-Ice type lifted its head and its eyes lit up purple-indigo colour as Gyarados was lifted into the air and wrapped around itself, tighter and tighter.

"Lapras, now use Ice Beam!"

The struggling Gyarados couldn't break free of the Physic attack and was destroyed particularly with the following beam of cold shards.

Each dragon-type after that felt the icy wrath of Lapras, one after another, with the occasional Surf attack thrown in for Aerodactyl. After aiming multiple Ice Beams at the exhausted Dragonite, the heavy Pokémon fell to the ground defeated.

"That's it..." Lance echoed with his eyes empty of emotion. Red was about to apologize until those same eyes lit up with laughter and interest. "I hate to admit it, but you're a Pokémon master in the making! I still can't believe my dragons lost to you, Red!"

Red grinned, and hugged Lance.

"You're now the Pokémon League Champion!"

Red thanked Lance repeatedly but was abruptly interrupted.

"...or you would have been, but you have one more challenge ahead of you for that title. You have another trainer to defeat."

"Another?"

Lance nodded, opening the doors behind him.

"His name is... Blue."

Red stared into the chamber where Blue awaited him, smirk on his face and pokéball in hand.

* * *

"Hey, Red!"

His laughter echoed as Red slowly stepped towards him, his Pikachu with eyes of determination.

"I was looking forward to seeing you; after all, my rival should be strong to keep me sharp!"

Red rolled his eyes, and urged Blue to continue with his sarcastic eyes and the silence.

"While working on the Pokédex, I looked all over for powerful Pokémon to make the perfect team; I assembled teams that would defeat any Pokémon type!"

Laughing, his eyes hungry and drunk on power.

"And now... Now, I am the League Champion! Do you know what that means, Red?!"

"I will tell you personally; I am the strongest Pokémon trainer in the world! Let me show you!"

Sandslash versus Blastoise; this old song and dance.

The ground-type charged forward with claws at the ready, only to be blasted back into the ground by Water Gun. It attempted the same move again, only to be pushed further into the small crate it made before. This time, Sandslash did not get back up.

Blue shrugged it off as a fluke. Same old Blue.

Sending out Snorlax, to fight off Alakazam was not the smartest idea but was not the worst; Snorlax was thrown towards Red with Physic but hit the doors behind them. Lance had left quickly, before been crushed by the heavyweight Pokémon. Getting up with much difficulty, Snorlax blasted Alakazam with more brute force with a Hyper Beam, destroying a pillar in the room.

Exeggutor waddled towards Red's Charizard, giving Charizard the edge as it used Fire Blast; Exeggutor emerged from the smoke burnt but still standing. Pushing the large fire lizard to the floor, he continuously used Stomp on the Pokémon's head only to be greeted with a second Fire Blast that finished the grass-type off.

Sunrays shone onto the flower on Venusaur's back, which absorbed it producing photosynthesis. Cloyster knocked Venusaur back a few inches using Aurora Beam, freezing one of the petals; Big mistake when Venusaur greeted Cloyster's face with an immense Solarbeam attack to the point where even withdrawing into its own shell wouldn't have protected it.

Lapras came out again, having been healed, but was caught in a binding vortex of fire. Ninetales could be seen through the flames, waving its tails almost mockingly.

"... ..." Red stayed silent and upon seeing an entry in the vortex, clicked his fingers.

Lapras summoned up a small wave of water, and doused the flames and Ninetales. A second wave, larger than the rest of them, soaked the fire-fox into defeat. Pulling it down into the ocean of loss.

Jolteon versus Pikachu; Two electric types, the same dance, the same song, the same eyes full of determination in both Pokémon and trainer.

"Pikachu!" – "Jolteon!"

"Let's end this!" Blue and Red exclaimed, in harmony.

Jolteon's speed increased, and slammed into Pikachu with a Quick Attack following up with a Pin Missile attack; this time four rounds hitting the rodent. Pikachu pulled out the pins and slammed straight back into Jolteon twice as hard.

Red healed up Pikachu, who had taken the beat down out of the two then ordered a Thunder Attack. Charging up, electricity flying up at all angles from the small rodent, ran into another storm of metallic pins from Jolteon – taking them, Pikachu slammed into Jolteon's head and set off a Thunder Attack.

The lights seemed to dull.

Blue's eyes seemed to dull.

Red's eyes seemed to brighten.

He won.

* * *

Blue ran over to his Jolteon, hugging his starter close to his body.

"No! This can't be!"

Red picked up Pikachu, healing the Pokémon and stared at Blue from the short distance. He towered over the crouched, angry boy.

"I won, Blue."

"You beat my best! All that work to become the Champion and you just took it away in minutes? My reign can't be over!"

"Blue, I won; I'm the new Champion..."

"It's not fair!" Blue screamed, banging his spare fist into the floor. He returned his Jolteon and grabbed Red's shirt causing him to drop his Pikachu.

"Why? Why did I lose? I never made any mistakes raising my Pokémon!" Blue growled, his eyes flamed with rage. "Darn it! You're the new Pokémon Champion..."

Red held Blue close as he growled and sniffled.

"I hate to admit it, but it's true..."

A voice echoed, causing Blue to push Red away and wipe his tears.

"Red!"

The Professor came running up, panting much as he did back in the beginning, but stopped to rest for a moment in front of the two boys. Once regaining his breath, he grinned at Red giving him a thumb up.

"So... you won! Congratulations!"

"Thanks, Professor?" blinking, Red wondered how news travelled so fast.

"Yes well, you've grown up since you first left with Pikachu! Red, it appears you have come of age!" Oak grinned, his face filled with pride for the trainer. This pride faded into heavy disappointment when he turned to Blue.

"Blue... I'm disappointed in you, though." Blue's face struck with fear and rejection. "I had rushed here when I learned you were Champion, but you were defeated so easily by Red when I got here!"

Blue glared at Red, envy coursing through his veins.

"Blue! Pay attention!" The brunette went back to looking at Samuel Oak. "Do you understand why you lost? It is because you forgot to treat your Pokémon with trust and love; without that trust and love, you will never become a champion again..."

The Professor grabbed Red's hand and led him to the room in the back.

"Red, you understand your victory was not your own doing, but yours and your Pokémon with the help of that bond you share, which is marvellous!"

Red nodded faintly, his eyes connecting with Blue's for a second.

"Come with me, Red."

* * *

A large computer was in a dark room, lighting up their surroundings and illuminating the lack of emotion on Red's face.

Oak coughed, ready to announce a speech he had prepared for Blue firstly.

"Congratulations, Red!" He spoke, with a pride in his voice that was meant to be reserved for Blue. "This room is the Pokémon Hall of Fame! Pokémon League Champions are honoured for their exploits here, along with their Pokémon."

"Red, you have endeavoured hard to become the new Champion so congratulations once more, Red because you and your Pokémon are hall of famers!"

Red watched his team and himself be recorded in the large database.

He did not really care; He was proud, he was happy but the emotions left when he saw what he had done to Blue.

Therefore, after all was done, he just walked home.

* * *

'_You finally won, Red; how does it feel?'_

"_... ... ..."_

'_How does it feel to know back in Lavender Town, he asks whether or not you know what it's like to have one of your Pokémon die? He no longer has his Raticate that he used in previous battles, like the battle on the S.S. Anne.'_

"_... ... ..."_

'_His Raticate sustained serious injuries from the battle... However, because of crowds and confusion on the luxury liner, he was unable to make it to a Pokémon Center in time and the Raticate passed away. The real reason Blue was in Lavender Town to begin with? Was to lay his deceased friend to rest, the friend you killed.'_

'_Despite all of this, your little... boyfriend... never outwardly tells you that you are responsible for the death of his Pokémon. He hides his grief and instead channels that energy into the motivation he needed to continue his quest to become Indigo League Champion.'_

"_... ... ..."_

'_The death of his Raticate effectively destroys your precious Blue's impish, childhood innocence. Although he tells himself that he does not hold you responsible, he subconsciously holds a great deal of resentment towards you, which further fuels his ambitions. Tearfully, swearing upon his Raticate's grave to not fail in what he set out to do, he trains hard in hopes of becoming better than you - defeating you - and to eventually make it to the Pokémon League.'_

"_... ... ..."_

'_Then, mere moments after he became Indigo League champion, he was defeated... by you!' _

A dark chuckle echoed throughout Red's head.

"_... ... ..."_

'_Although he fulfilled his promise to his fallen Pokémon, it was only for a painfully brief instant. In the end, his grandfather scolded him while you receive the professor's praise. During the course of this game you call a journey, you steal your rival and once best friend's innocence, crush his dreams, and ultimately snatch away the love of his own grandfather.'_

"_... ... ..."_

'_Oh, and you remember that Blue is an orphan right?'_

Red just kept walking.

Fire just disappeared.

* * *

That was the end.

* * *

We are at the end!

...Or are we? Red needs to keep his silent promise to the Pokémon World and to Blaine by capturing and defeating Mewtwo.

Then we have two special chapters!

I hope you have liked this series so far.


	10. Painting in Violet

This is the last chapter to the main series, which will be followed up with a chapter on Mt. Silver and a chapter on PWT.

I know this may be shorter than the rest of the chapters, but it is only portraying Red's promise to Blaine and the Pokémon of the world. Nonetheless, I hope you have enjoyed 'Painting the Canvas Red and Blue.'

* * *

Red's fingers lazily mashed against the gamepad, saving his game on the SNES, before grasping his red cap with a white pokéball symbol and eyeshade. This routine seemed familiar.

Slipping on his red jacket over his black undershirt that matched his ebony hair and shimmering burgundy eyes, the boy stepped towards the stairs and plodded with no emotion on his face downstairs to leave the house, greeting his mother quickly before he shut the door behind him. His looks were, from even a first glance, passed on from his single parent mom, who had long ebony locks of her own with ember-coloured eyes and faint pink lips. The relationship they shared was a close one... or it was, until her son had become the Pokémon Champion and had gone on this search for a Pokémon known as Mewtwo, talking to Fuji of Lavender Town, discussing locations with Blaine of Cinnabar and searching for his rival, Blue.

* * *

"The only place we haven't searched is the Power Plant or Cerulean Cave." Blaine explained, his fingers gesturing to two thumbtacks placed on a town map that was laid out on a table in the famous local lab.

"I've checked the Power Plant actually... I only found electric Pokémon and the electric bird."

"Zapdos?" Blaine questioned, staring at Red in surprise.

"Yeah, but it had a trainer... I remember seeing the same girl with Moltres at Victory Road and I think I saw her at the entrance once at Seafoam Islands."

"Maybe she owns all three of the legendary bird Pokémon... Anyway, so the only place you haven't searched is Cerulean Cave?"

"No, I didn't really want to because that's where Giovanni told me Mewtwo may be... I didn't want to believe him."

"Yeah, I understand that but if it ever leaves and decides to cause havoc throughout Kanto then I think capturing it is more important than what Giovanni said."

Red sighed, his bare hand rubbing his scalp under his hat; Pikachu chimed in with agreement to Blaine's statement, from Red's shoulder.

"Well, I guess it is true... Okay, I'll go check Cerulean Cave now then."

Blaine nodded and patted the Champion on the back.

* * *

Red went down the river that separated the cave from the city on his Lapras' back, the only tool able to capture Mewtwo in hand.

The Masterball.

The purple pokéball (with two lighter purple domes like ears on top of it) caught the sunlight on an angle and appears like an Amethyst or some sort of violet jewel. Red smiled faintly at its modern beauty.

Once Lapras arrived at the cave's entrance, he stood on the shore outside the cave and returned the Pokémon to its pokéball.

"Let's go, Pikachu... we just need to go in there, weaken it then capture it."

Pikachu nodded in agreement, making sounds of approval.

* * *

Droplets of water dripped from the stalactites on the cave ceiling, into the flooded areas of the cave that were dull of ocean colour. Dirt and rubble were strewn throughout the cave, obvious damage from a highly powerful Pokémon deep in the cavern's depths.

"Well, it could have at least cleaned up for us." Red grumbled, before using Lapras and Snorlax to navigate around the cave's first floor. Picking up spare bits and bobs like Max Elixirs and Max Revives on the way up and down the depths, Red continued.

Sailing towards the final platform Red could find, in the cavern, a haze could be seen – a faint violet smog – surrounding a silhouetted figure.

Landing on the stairs and keeping Lapras nearby, Red approached the figure – it was Mewtwo.

Red observed the physic, artificial Pokémon; Mewtwo had a humanoid posture, but Red noted the few feline features. Mewtwo's body was greyish-purple with a purple underside and a long, purple tail. Mewtwo has three circular digits on each appendage. It has an opposable toe on the inside of each foot as well as two others that face forward. It has purple eyes and two short ears.

Red had also noticed the tube extending from the back of its skull to its spine. It is most likely a secondary spinal cord or a system of nerves, Red thought, that allowed for an increased amount of blood and sensory transmission to go to the brain, heightening its psychic powers.

Approaching the physic Pokémon, he heard a voice in his head – it was not Fire, who had faded from his mind since the victory at the Indigo Plateau, but the Pokémon he was tracking down.

"_Leave... This is my domain; human... you must leave..."_

"I won't leave! I have to capture you!"

Mewtwo's eyes lit up blue, like a neon light, and Red's mind was invaded not just by a voice, but also by a completely new level of physic energy.

Mewtwo went through Red's memories like a scrapbook, smirking at every little victory or loss – both physically and mentally. When reaching memories of Blaine, the promise, Giovanni.

The purpose.

"_You intend to send me back! To the vile humans that created me? I will not allow that to happen!"_

"Get out of my head, get out of my head!" Red screamed, clutching his head in his hands.

"_I will not endure that Hell once again, I earned my freedom human! If you disagree, then you shall pay... in your blood!"_

Mewtwo coated its body in Safeguard, its entire body glowing blue like the sky outside. Lapras' surf attack that arrived back from the stairs did not even touch the feline-humanoid creature. Red raced back and jumped on Lapras' back.

"Lapras, swim further down quickly then Ice Beam!"

Mewtwo charged down the cavern lake after Lapras, firing a Swift attack at Red. The star-like asteroids were frozen mid-air and dropped into the lake before the same Ice Beam attack hit Mewtwo. The Safeguard protected the physic from most the damage.

"We'll have to go stronger... Lapras, try Blizzard!"

Mewtwo stopped quickly, and created a physic barrier around itself to deflect the core of the Blizzard attack but the barrier came down quicker than anticipated; Mewtwo snarled at Red.

"Lapras, again, use Blizzard!"

Mewtwo did not expect the second storm of snow and ice shards, but used Recover to heal the scars and damage it had taken.

"Damn it... Lapras, take a break. Let's do this Pikachu."

Red and Pikachu waited until Mewtwo was in range, water flying and soaking the Pokémon at the speed it rushed across the river.

"One... two... Pikachu, Thunder attack – full power!"

Mewtwo was hit, the water causing the attack to be more critical than it should be, and the Pokémon laid paralyzed in the water almost defeated with little fight left in it.

Lapras swam Red over to the physic Pokémon. Red took out the masterball, and it was not long before Mewtwo was beamed into the ultimate Pokémon capturing tool.

* * *

"Time to go back to Blaine, Mewtwo..."

"_You vile human! You cannot take me back, it was torture, Hell does nothing in comparison to what that man did to create me!"_

Red frowned, staring at the Masterball.

"You have to go back; you have no choice - only he knows what to do with you."

"_Pathetic! You came to complete a promise, to stop the vile man who requested my creation from ever using my existence yet you toss me aside to the man who birthed me! You are weak; you cannot even keep the promise of safety you made to yourself so you make him do the dirty work for you!"_

Red's hand quivered.

"_If you truly are the Champion, and have the strength of the title you earned in your short lifetime then you will do what you did to your rival so mercilessly with childish innocence in mind; You will kill me! Destroy me, Red of Pallet Town!"_

Red's eyes widened.

"_Do it!"_

Nobody was around to stop him so Red did as he was told; He destroyed the first Masterball...

With Mewtwo inside it.

* * *

Red left with his team, and looked into the distance as his Charizard flew him into the air. On the Horizon, he saw a mountain that reached past the sky, past the limits he set himself.

"Charizard, take me up there..."

Red wasn't seen by the Professor, by the gym leaders or even by his mother again. He burst through the skies limitation.

And resided there.

* * *

That is it, for the final chapter!

Sad, I know and I apologize for the lack of Red/Blue but the two epilogue chapters will have some in so don't worry!


	11. Epilogue One: Toning with White

Epilogue One!

Mt. Silver... Snow cone, anyone?

* * *

"I'm bringing him back, stay here."

Blue instructed the younger to stay put - even if he was now one of the strongest trainers in Johto and Kanto, Blue wanted Gold to stay away while he had a personal talk with his old rival.

"_Red... I'm going to drag you from that god damn mountain even if it takes my entire Pokémon team to help!"_

Sending out his Pidgeot (that he had obtained in his time as a Viridian Gym Leader and travelling the other regions to find himself), he flew to Mt. Silver, and scaled the rest of the treacherous obstacle between him and Red alone. His Pokémon all either back at the gym or on his belt, in their pokéballs. His mind raced at the same speed as his heart; he could not stop thinking of Red even now.

The bitter cold weakened Blue; he just was not used to it.

He forced himself to continue, before stumbling upon a silhouette that was heading towards a cave. He was sure it was Red.

"Red!" he called for him, his voice hoarse from yelling his name so much within the cavern chambers.

The shadow-y figure stopped, and Blue's vision got worse as he felt ill. He blamed Red and his stupidity, for leaving him in a state of worry. Not just him, but everyone.

"Red...!" he screamed one last time before passing out.

* * *

Blue awoke with Red's Charizard's tail near his face as a source of heat.

"Where... am I?" Blue came round to his senses. "Red! Where are you?"

Red came and pushed Blue back onto the covers he had his Pokémon gather from the nearest town from the mountain, shaking his head sighing.

"Rest. You could've died out there." His voice was void of anything but concern.

"No! I can't, I have to... I have to...!" Blue didn't continue as a coughing fit took over.

"Damn it, Blue, you're so reckless – just calm down!" exclaimed the Kanto hero, soothing Blue's back in hope to ease his coughing.

"Does it really matter? I'm not worth it, Red and you know it."

Red's eyes widened.

"I mean, I was a horrible friend... I broke the promise I made as a kid to protect you, and be your best friend even through the rough times yet I pushed you in and out of my life like some sort of nostalgic toy, messing with your heart and the only time I talked to you? I was a cocky, little shit who wanted prove he was something when really... I am nothing. I was selfish, I still am."

Blue covered his face, flushed not only from the warmth of Charizard's tail and Red's presence but from shame and disappointment in himself.

"No... No, you're wrong Blue."

Blue looked up, to see Red shuddering – crying even.

"We made mistakes, you and me... I hurt you and you just hurt me back, we both made promises we couldn't really keep. We were just kids. I thought you hated me, anyway, and that is one of the reasons why I stayed here, hoping that maybe you would bring me back home..."

Blue soaked in the words, a smirk lighting up his features despite how pale he looked amongst the bright red blush on his face. Reaching for the other's hand, he pulled Red into him once he had sat upright, and brushed the back of his spare hand against Red's cheek.

"You could have just said."

"I think our pride overtook the situation, Blue... I didn't want to hurt you."

Blue moved in close, his lips brushing against the once warm lips he knew.

"You hurt me by staying away, but if you can forgive me so easily then I can forgive you too; I'm still sorry though... for not been here earlier... but I had a lot to think about."

"I-It's fine..." Red closed the gap, their eyes closing slowly as they blocked out the world around them and surrounded each other in the colours of their blood, sweat, tears and their passion.

Red fused with Blue, as if they were one, their tongues battling for dominance in a battle that Blue had won for once. Red submitted willingly, his hands grasping at the black jacket Blue wore and he reached for the zip to undo it, pushing it off only to struggle with the white t-shirt Blue adorned.

"A bit eager, Red?"

"Quiet... take it off, and kiss me again."

Blue chuckled, his trademark smirk softening as he threw aside his shirt – his body slim but not as slim as Red's body, Red noticed the faint appearance of abs trying to force their way into existence – and pushed Red onto the cave floor, continuing to attack his lips with bruising kisses.

* * *

"_I spent all this time, wandering around Kanto and the other regions to become stronger in hopes of becoming complete... I achieved many goals, met many people and became stronger as I had hoped but still felt alone, incomplete, in pieces..."_

"_But in the end, all I really needed was the touch of another – your touch, your hand, your lips."_

"_I know what life is without you, and it is hell... I don't want to go back to that. I needed you back in my life, and now I have you?"_

Blue smiled at Red, curled into him under the multiple covers, and stroked the boy's cheek.

"_I'll never let you go."_

* * *

That is the Mt. Silver epilogue but I still have to do the PWT one, so enjoy this one!

I know it's short and there is no smexytimes but I wanted to keep this series sweet.


End file.
